Monsoons in the past heralded a certain romance, the sound and smell of rain. One missed that season so much when one was away. The feeling of relief from the scorching summer heat, the fresh green plants washed and bathed. The monsoons always brought a feeling of being cleansed. The soul refreshed, with the smell of the earth mixed with water. Eating jamuns (jambul), relishing the sweet taste of mangoes, it was the best part of summer in Lahore. The perfect time to curl up next to the window and catch up on reading if you are not in the mood to go out for a walk in the rain!
For some of us, however, the monsoons have now come to be the dreaded time of the year when roads and houses will be flooded, with the sewers overflowing, making it impossible for many to even leave their compounds. A rainy day will be spent doling out water from the house or heaving furniture on to bricks to keep it safe from water that is trying to weave its own path searching desperately for a way out.
Today a lot has changed — we are creatures that are in hiding, we live not with nature but apart from it, fighting the natural weather conditions, involved in a power struggle through our rush for so-called development that will only leave us defeated. We plan our cities not in keeping with our environment but in keeping with our favourite development in a foreign city. It could be Dubai or Las Vegas or LA, but heaven forbid if we plan it according to any of the old cities that have kept their character. We are stripping our cities of their identities in a race to look modern and to make way for concrete jungles, monstrous buildings and increasing traffic that is transforming our cities and paralysing our limbs. You will see many a people driving to a park for a walk but a dwindling number of pedestrians on the roads.
In Pakistan, sustainable development is always mentioned in rather a tongue in cheek manner, as if it does not really have any real existence and is just a word from the academic circles/books. Looking at the havoc that the rains have caused on our ‘low lying areas’ as well as not so low lying areas, we can easily assess the impacts of myopic development planning and the difference a sustainable development approach would have had on the development in these areas.
The major components of sustainable development — environmental, social, and economic — cannot be isolated from each other. The good governance concept is enshrined in the sustainable development concept as it joins together key elements of human development and places a responsibility on the generation using the resources. This concept has roots in the ancient systems as far back as Ashoka, where respect for nature and conservation was a human responsibility. The well being of communities was a collective responsibility.
Monsoons are part of our geographical and climatic heritage; for centuries we have lived with this seasonal variation and coped happily with it. Our ancestors were smarter than us; they planned for sustainable development that benefitted them and benefitted us, their future generations. Planting trees alongside our roads was not just an aesthetically pleasing landscaping concept, it was also in keeping with our climate, to provide shade from the incessant heat of the summer months and then of course the monsoons that followed — absorbing the water through their roots, filtering and acting as sponges for carrying the water downwards to replenish the ground water aquifers.
Today, in the ‘modern era’ where our developers have used development to mimic other cities, forgetting the peculiar needs of our climatic conditions, we find our roads as well as our homes flooded by the life-giving rain. No engineering solutions have been brainstormed to find a way out of bad planning of roads that are not level with surrounding areas; constructing concrete belts without any assessment and sustainable planning, no number of storm sewers will cope with the monsoon rain. Neither are the loss of eco service benefits — when removing the green belts on our roads — ever calculated in making decisions, nor are the increased municipal costs that will be incurred even considered.
We all know that this rainwater is a precious fresh water resource for us; however, our planning and development in cities ignores the importance of it. We are heading towards becoming a water-scarce country but we continue to plan our cities to make room for cars and more cars.
Only our soil — this earth, our green belts, can safely carry the rain water and guide it towards ground water aquifers that need to be recharged as the discharge rate in these aquifers is now reaching unsustainable levels. To achieve sustainability in urban development and to ease the difficulties facing the city today we need to align our development with our needs.
Sustainable development is the impetus that steers our vision to harmonise our planning and development according to our indigenous requirements. This may well bring the joy and romance back in the monsoons.
The writer is an environment and development planning consultant. She can be reached at [email protected]