{"id":20038620,"date":"2020-09-28T13:30:57","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T08:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=38620"},"modified":"2021-01-29T18:10:52","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T12:40:52","slug":"pakistans-dream-of-a-city-by-the-ravi-may-be-an-illusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/water\/pakistans-dream-of-a-city-by-the-ravi-may-be-an-illusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan\u2019s dream of a city by the Ravi may be an illusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pakistan\u2019s Prime Minister Imran Khan is determined to address three challenges: low-income housing, vertical expansion, and the creation of millions of jobs. In August 2020, he linked all three to what is soon to become his party\u2019s pet project, the <\/span>Ravi River Urban Development Project<\/span><\/a> (RRUDP), that runs along the Ravi River from a northeast to southwest direction. According to the plan, it involves the construction of a 40,000 hectare (1,000 square kilometre) planned city on either side of the river, while also channeling and rehabilitating the river into a perennial freshwater body. <\/span><\/p>\n

The PM hopes that the Ravi City project <\/span>costing <\/span>PKR 5 trillion <\/span><\/a>(USD 30 billion) will create millions of jobs as at least 40 industries are connected to the construction sector. He said <\/span>the project would be completed in three phases, and <\/span>the wealth created from this project would be spent on education and health. His government, too, said that the <\/span>project<\/span><\/a> will \u201csave Lahore by stopping the spread of unplanned urban sprawl, raise the water table and revive the river Ravi, preventing it from becoming a sewerage nala\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

The governing party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, has also repeatedly emphasised how the project will ensure the plantation of millions of trees in a forest area, generate tremendous foreign exchange, and lead to cleaner water. <\/span><\/p>\n

Experts, though, are conflicted about whether the plan will come to fruition, and if it does, whether it will sustainably address Lahore\u2019s numerous challenges, which include the shortage of safe drinking water, inadequate drainage, overpopulation and environmental degradation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tensions with India<\/b><\/p>\n

A major hurdle is the transboundary nature of the Ravi, which is one of the six rivers whose use is managed under the <\/span>Indus Waters Treaty<\/span><\/a> (1960) between India and Pakistan. Each country was given the use of three rivers (with some non-consumptive use allowed for India for rivers flowing through territory under its administration). The Ravi is one of the rivers whose use was allotted to India.<\/span><\/p>\n

As political tensions continue to escalate between the two countries, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has earlier vowed to not let one drop of \u201cIndian\u201d water flow into Pakistan, though India has not stopped any of the water flow mandated by the treaty.<\/span><\/p>\n

Modi’s statement may not have any real impact on Imran Khan\u2019s new city plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a political statement,\u201d said environmental lawyer Ahmed Rafay Alam. \u201cBoth countries indulge in these from time to time.\u201d <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Read: <\/span>\u2018Dialogue offers only hope for India and Pakistan\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Alam suggested that both the hydrology and the engineering of the area prohibit India from doing anything rash. \u201cIndia has developed canal water networks as has Pakistan, the network of which provides water to Punjab, Haryana and even Rajasthan. If they stop the water, they will end up flooding their own territory. If they release the water, they will end up starving it. So why would they?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That said, India has often released a few thousand cusecs of water into the Ravi in the monsoons when water has been surplus, said the director of WWF Pakistan, Hammad Naqi. According to him, while the IWT did allot the eastern rivers to India, Pakistan, as a, \u201clower riparian [country also] has rights, not just under a treaty but even because of ecology. If Ravi is run completely dry it should not be acceptable.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, the water on the Pakistani side of the Ravi may not even be India\u2019s to control, according to Vaqar Zakariya, the director of Hagler Bailly Pakistan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOn the Indian side the river is glacier fed and rain fed both; in Pakistan, it is rain fed,\u201d he said. \u201cIn that context, we are not depending on India for water. If there is a 50 to 100-year flood, Thein dam will have nothing to do with that. It will come because of rains with the same intensity whether there is a Thein or a Madhupur Reservoir on the other side. Larger floods will always be sent towards us, but the regular five to 10-year floods will end up being decreased here because the dams will be able to store extra water.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Conservationist and architect Fauzia Qureshi is of the same opinion. \u201cThe Ravi\u2019s waters belong to India. Whether they keep all of it or not, it\u2019s their choice. Yes, in the winters there is bound to be less water since there are fewer rains,\u201d she said. \u201cAs for the development of the city project, the government means to divert waters from the Chenab River.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Qureshi said that India used to release water into Pakistan when they had excess water in the monsoon. “They would not like their dams to overflow.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

All of Lahore\u2019s master plans have their backs to the river \u2013 the city was always meant to be on the banks of the Ravi, not along it. The city developed eastwards and southwards. \u201cNow that India has built the dam, Ravi\u2019s expanse will lessen, but there will always be water in it because of the rain,\u201d Qureshi said. \u201cOnly now there will be more sewage than water.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A city by a river of sewage<\/b><\/p>\n

There is another problem with the city by the river, and it is related to the quality of the water, not the quantity, and that problem is all on the Pakistani side.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not depend on Indian water,\u201d said an official of the Punjab Planning and Development Department on condition of anonymity. \u201cWe have three link canals and the Siphon (BRB) canal. There is enough water. Yes, there is dirty water too but we plan to treat it before it flows into the river, and we also plan to have lakes and three other barrages that we have built.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea is to channel the water so it runs through the concrete jungle of buildings on either side. Fauzia Qureshi said it will be thousands of cusecs of sewage and nothing else.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWater coming from India is muddy brown and is good, clean water, with fish etc.\u201d she said. \u201cAt the point it enters Lahore, it becomes black with sewage that flows through the drains, all carrying Lahore\u2019s industrial and domestic waste. Babu Sabu, Mehmood Booti, and Hadiyara \u2013 originally these were storm water drains, they were never sewage drains. WASA (Water and Sanitation Authority) for its own convenience has diverted sewage into the river instead of treating it. In fact, these drains were meant to be tributaries of the Ravi.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Both she and Zakariya believe that sewage treatment plants must be set up and the river must be revitalised. Without it the new city will only be surrounded by wastewater. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read: Pakistan launches drive against crops grown with wastewater<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can clean up sewage water using bioremediation. We need extra land but anyway that is already available in the agricultural land along the river. We also need to leave the floodplains alone.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Around 3,500 cusecs of sewage water daily end up dirtying the clean water of the river, Alam said. According to estimates, PKR 3.5 billion [USD 21 million] is needed just to clean the water coming from Lahore. And then you have effluent coming in from Gujranwala, Faisalabad and other places. \u201cThe Asian Development Bank was helping revitalise the Ravi basin but we have to decide what will the water be cleaned for. For irrigation? For children to play in? ADB\u2019s project to revitalise the basin was a dramatically different project than this short-sighted one.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Flood alert<\/b><\/p>\n

A further complication comes from a city design that is heavy on concrete, and low on natural management of the river. According to data, floods along the Ravi are big every three to five years \u2013 and spread around one kilometre on each side. Once in 20 years, a flood is even bigger, with a spread of two kilometres on each side. The project visualises an embankment area for a one-in-a-100 year flood, building a wall which would be very expensive, one kilometre wide and six kilometres long. But there is no floodplain, so where will all the water go? <\/span><\/p>\n

Read: Why Lahore floods, and how to stop it<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead of this wall, experts argue that there should have been a national park, or land utilised for agriculture and forestry<\/span><\/p>\n

When the bigger floods come, there will be massive destruction, said Zakariya, adding that the government had blinkers on. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we should aim to have is a \u2018living river\u2019 not channelised water and barrages. [The land should be kept] for the people, not converted into real estate. This way, the government won\u2019t have to spend trillions in taxpayers\u2019 money into building ugly structures.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile everything about the project could well just be rhetoric, because some believe it may never materialise. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it will get anywhere,\u201d said Alam. \u201cAt this point the Lahore Development Authority has issued a tender asking for expressions of interest of consultants; they are in the feasibility stage,\u201d he says. \u201cThat said, in 2013 the previous government had to cease the project because it was not financially viable. What [new thing] has this government seen if the last one dumped it?\u201d he asked. <\/span><\/p>\n

One environmental expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the new construction package allowed developers to market a scheme before getting a No Objection Certificate (which is an LDA requirement). <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you overcome the requirement? By carving the project out of the LDA’s jurisdiction and handing it to a newly made Riverfront Authority, which has no building, no managing director, no employees?\u201d he said. \u201cIs this an investment balloon for making a quick buck leaving investors in the lurch? It sure is beginning to look like it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, it is all about the land and the bigwigs who will end up benefiting from it,\u201d said Fauzia. \u201cAffordable housing? Only to the corporate world and the rich.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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