Averting cross-border ecocide
WITH the inauguration of the National Health Card in Bahawalpur by PMIK, the process of providing free medical treatment to the people across Punjab has been intensified.
CM Punjab and Provincial Finance Minister were also present on the occasion.Since health is a provincial subject, following the 18th Amendment, allocating Rs 400 billion by Punjab to provide universal healthcare to its people is certainly a bold step while the economy is under stress and revenues are not picking up fast.
Punjab is the second province, after Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, under the PTI rule to provide universal healthcare to its citizens.
Addressing a function held at Islamia University Bahawalpur, PM rightly termed the step taken by his government towards building a healthy Pakistan as revolutionary and, definitely, the step has been taken for the first time in the country’s history.
Other than providing relief to the poverty-stricken people of the region, the free health facility will have a salutary effect on the health infrastructure of the region.
On the one hand, public hospitals will be relieved of the pressure due to deadly diseases engulfing the region, on the other hand, the private sector will feel encouraged to invest more in the health sector.
Dozens of private hospitals in the three district headquarters: Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalnagar.
Due to specific circumstances, the Bahawalpur region is plagued with jaundice, cancer and heart diseases.
In this emergency situation, the entire burden of treatment of life-threatening diseases mostly fell on district headquarter hospitals of Bahawalpur, Rahimyar Khan and Bahawalnagar.
Doctors focused less on their duty, more on private clinics, which had become the key to better facilities for their clients in government hospitals.
The affluent class was benefiting from the facilities of private sector hospitals.
The poor and middle class, after spending their savings here, were rushing to Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi.
Thus, in the current situation, the issuance of National Health Card to the citizens of Bahawalpur is timely and commendable.
Given the health crisis afflicting the region, the facility was given late, but it has been finally done and the Prime Minister did care to visit Bahawalpur to inaugurate it.
The question is whether the facility provided by the Punjab government will be sustainable or the change of government will make everything worse.
The sigh of relief that the people have heaved will definitely benefit the PTI government in the upcoming elections, both at local and national level.
Earlier, generosity was also shown in the financial support given during the corona-virus.
I frequently visit Bahawalpur and have personally witnessed people expressing pleasant surprise over the financial help during the pandemic.
Many of the grievances and problems of the people of Bahawalpur will be removed by the implementation of resolutions passed several times by the Provincial Assembly regarding the creation of new provinces and the establishment of empowered local governments.
But the health issue is complex.Behind the epidemic of deadly diseases engulfing Bahawalpur region is the environmental catastrophe caused by the drying up of the Sutlej, the only river passing through this arid region.
The river receives an average of 25 million acre feet of water annually.The secret of prosperity of Bahawalpur rested in the floodplain of the Sutlej.
Fresh fish, pulses and meat and milk were cheap and plentiful.Groundwater was found at a depth of 20 to 50 feet in the 40 km green belt on the eastern side of the Sutlej.
In the dry months the residents of Rohi drove their cattle to the banks of this perennial river for water and fodder.
The river has dried up, undermining all aspects of food security.The biggest cause of diseases is low groundwater level and rising level of arsenic in it.
Diseases such as jaundice, cancer and blindness are common.This is the secret of heart disease and psychiatric problems.
According to former Senator, Muhammad Ali Durrani, who is working for the restoration of the Sutlej, the water required for the ecological life of this river has been withheld through Indus Basin Treaty signed back in 1960.
The agreement does not require India even to stop releasing agricultural and industrial pollutants into the river, which for miles and miles flows in the form of black liquid and causes dangerous diseases.
Even within India, the quality of Sutlej waters has deteriorated to the extent that it can sustain aquatic life.
Where India should have been granted the right to use only agricultural water and that too in a manner that it did not affect the flow of the river it withheld the water required for ecological life by constructing two dams in East Punjab.
Ironically, the treaty obliges Pakistan to let in the wastewater from the other side of the divide, which runs miles after miles in the form of black liquid contaminating the riverbed and, consequently, spreading deadly diseases.
While Pakistan is undergoing a paradigm shift and pursuing a citizen-centric security policy, it’s time that it should activate the diplomatic channels to prevent India from perpetrating crime against its ecology and environment.
If the neighbour is not willing to release ecological water into Sutlej as per international law and conventions on rivers, it has no right to undertake ecocide of the lower riparian by releasing wastewater to its territories.
This is also the case with Ravi River, too.The plight of Bahawalpur is similar to that of Central Punjab — both are victims to the ecocide perpetrated by India and grossly ignored by the successive regimes.
Controlling water pollution is essential for significant success as it is the root cause of food insecurity and deadly disease.
Not only provincial and autonomous local governments must play their part in repairing the ecosystem but also diplomatic efforts should be marshalled to achieve the goal for the rehabilitation of the eastern rivers.
—The writer is politico-strategic analyst based in Islamabad.
