Pakistan Water Partnership is a part of Global Water
Partnership Program and volunteering this partnership to provincial and
district levels, the launching ceremony of the Farozaan Area Water Partnership
Karachi was held on March 3, 2018 at Sindh Social Welfare Training Institute
Karachi.
The head of Pakistan Water Partnership Sardar Muhamad Tariq
presided the ceremony with internationally-famed scholar and expert on water resource
management Dr. Pervaiz Amir as the keynote speaker and guest of the evening.
Dr. Pervaiz Amir stressing the need of trees and water
in urban cities said that citizens must come up and play their roles to make
Karachi sustainable and livable. He said that because of scarcity and
contamination of water Karachi is longer livable now. “Even if you (people)
want to live without conserving and managing your water resources then you must
build a thousand new hospitals for your healthcare because most of the disease you
are infected these days are water-borne in Karachi”, he opines. Replying a
question from audience Dr. Pervaiz suggested that desalination plants and rain
water harvesting could be two alternate and smart solutions in Karachi to meet
out water demands rather banking completely upon governmental schemes.
Sardar Muhammad Tariq was of the view that there is no
substitute of clean air and pure water on earth, therefore both must be
preserved and cared. He emphasized on the increase of water storage capacity in
Pakistan. In this regards he reveals “In case of drought our country has only
30-day water storage capacity, compared to India’ 100-day and Australia’
600-days. While the Egypt has a remarkable storage capacity for more than three
years and this art of water management the Egyptians inherited and learned from
their old civilization.” He pointed out that if Pakistan has to meet out its
agricultural and industrial demands of water, it must bring improvement of up
to 40% in it’s current water storage fold.
Sardar Tariq also told the significance of the Sustainable
Development Goals and pointed out the plastic pollution and marine pollution as
the top negative indictors of the city.
Earlier renowned environment journalist and the Editor
in chief of Farozaan threw light on water crisis in Karachi and signaling out
the water theft by tanker mafia termed it the main reason behind water scarcity
in the metropolitan.
Editorial, Infocus
Rain Gardens
ReplyDeleteRain Water Surface Run off utilization for artificial Recharge of Shallow Ground Water
Developing Rain Garden in Karachi & Other similar Cities & Towns ; Last few decades saw Fast paced urbanization with concrete structure & Asphalt Roads Highways these man made structure impedes the natural infiltration of surface water into sub surface zones causing lowering of water table depleting Shallow water wells & Soil moisture erosion, stressing naturally occurring Flora /Trees plantation green pastures & Ground Water Wells . Trees and Flora in the urban area facing the brunt of depleting water & Soil moisture/levels as a direct result of poorly planned rapid urbanization one that has already stressed out utilities for humans.
A solution (interim natural relief) is artificial recharge of shallow ground water by developing modifying existing open areas play land, purposely left out Green Belts areas(now dry beds ) , into Rain Gardens ; A Typical rain Garden is planned man made depression built in the path of rain water flow/run off , ( Natural temporarily pond ) it Utilizes the surplus surface runoff which otherwise drains off , Idea is to accumulate water and let it infiltrate into shallow sub surface aquifer resulting in Ground Water Quality & Quantity improvement PS the Photos are 2013 Rain Fall in Malir Area, Karachi ; Malir is in Arid water Zone ; by Developing Rain Gardens we can augment the area Ground Water table & Soil Moisture .
Developing Rain Gardens requires a professional approach i.e. Studies into Infiltration capacity of the site, Hydro Metrological ,Geophysical Studies i.e. Topographic survey of Area on digital methods and overlaying with known Rain water surface run off flow paths , developing parks intake around it in 2 to 3 feet depression with gradual manageable slope , In general and with little infiltration galleries - require Intelligent use of local material i.e. semi permeable filled with gravel the water is known to infiltrates below surface within 72 hours thus not a cause of concern and it will replenish the soil moisture resulting in Greener ,Cleaner Sustainable Environment for Karachi and Another major benefits is storm water control , surface runs off from asphalt roads and concrete structure can be diverted into rain water gardens , directly controlling flash storms and saving water and saving Sewerage System . as surface runs off brings in silts and accumulation of silt /sand/mud in sewage chokes them up . RAIN WATER GARDENS ARE WAY FORWARD