Are we Pakistanis really concerned about our sustainable future? Or have we simply become stone-hearted from the past few decades regarding our environment? Our communities have become dreadful landscapes of Garbage Mountains and are the ideal place for the probability of any plague to hit the ground. Just take a leer of future; what if in place of dwindling streams of fresh water our next generation see itinerant sacs of organic waste flowing from here and there in the water streams? Just come out from the thought of political revolution. The world of revolution is a lot bigger than this. We have already replaced everything with the worldly gods of materialism and now we have started compromising our aura! Seems bloodlessness…
According to an estimate, millions of tons of solid waste material are produced in Pakistan annually. Lahore is producing 5,000 tons of waste on daily basis. In spite of looking for better ideas, we have landfills for our ultimate waste disposal. Last month I visited one of the famous landfill sites of Lahore, Lakhodair, although it’s a good dumping site but the site is questionable regarding its life span. It seems like after a few years we have to leave this place and search for another landsite to dump our waste and so the cycle goes on and on. Same day of the same month I also visited the dumping site at Mehmood Booti, which represented a ravine of darkness. The mountains of garbage giving a lethal view and bringing a question mark on the ground water in conterminous areas.
As it is said that it’s never too late to mend, the need of the hour is to take some time off from the monotonous routine and make your scenery even more captivating by the innovative ideas of waste disposals. A healthy waste, the sentence itself seems ridiculous but by simply thinking of a sustainable lavish lifestyle, some recommendations are there that could be fruitful in the later stages. We humans have Croesus’ wealth at our home in the form of waste which we daily send for the treatment to the waste treatment industry. With the help of sufficient knowledge, we can do a process called composting at our own home. In pretty words, by simply stacking our household waste in a backyard and by providing proper aeration and temperature we can convert our waste into black gold; compost. It has a glint of rhinestone in it. By usage of natural process we can convert leftovers into a fertilizer which is even more fruitful than synthetic fertilizers.
Compost when it comes in contact with soil increases its structure and texture. Healthy soil can organically sustain plants, hence, giving improved moisture content and oxygen for the root growth and better-quality drainage. It also enhances the soil’s ability
to hold a massive amount of its dry weight. Apart from the healthy conversions it also has other positive aspects in it. So, the need of an hour is to take some steps and write your destiny by your own quill. So get up and join your hands to make your environment green. But, if we show recklessness then untainted environment would only remain a dream and the miserable lifestyle would be written in our fate.
Published in Daily Times, December 22nd 2017.