A Growing Burden

The provincial govt is doing little to control a rapid rise in population in Balochistan’s urban areas

QUETTA: Yawar Ali, 92, has some distant memories of the beautiful colonial city that Quetta was before the fateful morning of May 31, 1935 when a tremor of 7.7 magnitude razed it to ground.

“It looked like a small town in some European country.  There was hardly any vehicle when we walked along the street that was later named the Jinnah Road.

“There were fashionable showrooms, shops and restaurants along that road.  However, now you can hardly walk there,” says Yawar, sitting wrapped in a blanket in a rather cold room of his residence located at Mission Road, one of the old neighborhoods of the city.

Yawar is not happy with the way his town devolved from a hill station to an overcrowded and polluted city faced with major civic issues like traffic jams and scarcity of drinking water.

Zahid Panezai, 45, who lives in the city’s upscale cantonment area, reminisces on the era of the 1990s, when Balochistan’s capital had more pine trees and less crowded neighborhoods and roads.

“Things [in Quetta] began to change for the worse after 2000 when the province and its capital began to witness the impacts of a war in neighboring Afghanistan.

“The sectarian and ethnic violence in the province apparently resulted in migration to urban areas including Quetta, where new settlements have now mushroomed even on its surrounding mountains,” he said, pointing to the houses on Koh-e-Murad.

Panezai, who is a pharmacist by profession, believes that the city’s burgeoning population is a huge burden on its already insufficient water resources and infrastructure.

According to the 2017 census, Pakistan’s overall population growth rate is 2.4%.

However, in Balochistan, which is the biggest province of the country by landmass but the smallest in terms of population, the population growth rate was recorded as 3.7%.

Quetta is now the country’s 10th-most populous city with a population of 2.2 million and a worrying population growth rate of 5.7% per annum.

Safi Ullah Shahwani, an assistant director at the provincial Population Welfare Department (PWD), said the growing population of the province has not only stressed its already meager resources but the mother and child mortality rate has also increased here to an alarming degree. “The Pakistan Demographic Health Survey’s (PDHS) latest report should serve as an eye opener to all.

“According to the report, environmental degradation and natural as well as human induced disasters are offshoots of a population boom. Resilience to the impacts of climate change and adaptation are only possible when the population is effectively controlled,” he said.

Shahwani said the Ministry of Population was devolved to provinces in 2015 under the 18th Amendment and the situation in the province has worsened since “as our growing population has never been a cause of concern for any provincial government.”

He said the PWD is regarded as a “small department” by civil servants and no secretary willingly opts for the department which is responsible for devising policies and strategies to control population.

He said the population growth rate can only be reduced when all departments working on reproductive health make coordinated efforts.

“The PWD lacks human and physical resources. It has also been facing a severe financial crisis, due to budget cuts by the provincial finance department.

“These budget cuts have affected the department’s ability to launch campaigns; engage youth; reach out the eligible couples and social influencers and purchase contraceptives.”

He said a few years back, the Council of Common Interest (CCI) had forwarded recommendations to all provincial chief ministers to form provincial task forces to monitor their population programmes after former chief justice Saqib Nisar in 2018 took suo motu notice of unchecked population growth.

“It seems that governments are too busy on other matters and population control is not a priority with both the federal or provincial governments,” he added.

Arooj Khan, a lecturer at Buitems University said the western counties control their population according to their resources.

“We are, however, overpopulated and most of our population lives below the poverty line. This rise in population has had an impact on the environment as more and more people are now using fossil fuel while forests are being razed to get wood and build forms or housing societies.” She said an effective birth control can reduce stress on the natural and other resources. “We put all the blame on the government which is wrong but the government also has not been able to implement effective policies,” she added.

Arooj said food security issues are increasing in Balochistan due to climate change. The situation, she said, is worse in many areas including Chagai and Barkhan districts.

Hamza Shafqaat, Balochistan secretary information, said Pakistan is the fourth largest country in the world facing water scarcity. It is among the top 70 countries in the world in terms of global warming, climate change and food insecurity.

“The main cause of these problems is our population which we have not been able to control.”

He said Pakistan can learn a great deal from Bangladesh which has managed to bring its population growth under control by running effective campaigns.

“Bangladesh educated its women and gave them employment. The government of Pakistan is also working along these lines but the government of Balochistan is lagging behind.”

He said in many districts of the province the rate of literacy among women is even less than 3%.

“Ninety percent (90%) of women in Balochistan are illiterate. If girls and boys get education, it will help to lower the population growth rate which in turn will reduce pollution. That is why the chief minister has issued special instructions to activate all the ghost and inactive schools in the province.”

Dr Ali Mir, director programmes and research at the Population Council, said the rapid increase in Pakistan’s population is alarming because there is an imbalance between the population and the resources.

“Natural and mineral resources are depleting due to rapid population growth. Pakistan is suffering from water scarcity. There is also an energy crisis due to shortage of other resources like oil and gas.

“The infrastructure of the country is also inadequate for the growing population. It is very difficult for any government to provide an adequate number of educational institutions, hospitals and roads for such a large population. This is the reason why our country has a scarcity of medical and educational facilities.”

He said everyone living in the country should be aware of the rights of their children.

“When each and every person understands his responsibilities, he will bring balance to the size of his family. Everyone’s access to family planning facilities and information is critical to achieving this balance,” he said

He said 17% married couples in Pakistan who want to do family planning are unable to do so because of lack of family planning information and facilities.

Dr Mir said as far as Balochistan is concerned, although the population of Balochistan is less than other provinces, the maternal mortality rate in the province is the highest.

“The maternal mortality rate can be reduced through family planning and child health can be improved by proper spacing between children,” he said.

Environmental issue

Dr Jalal Qureshi, an environmental activist, said his organization is working on the issue of water scarcity in Pakistan. “We install water filtration plants. The system that we install here is the same which is installed in the USA. We have donated more than 300 filtration plants so far.

“We are providing awareness regarding environmental changes.  However, problems are increasing in all the districts of Balochistan with  increase in population,” he said. He said pollution, water and food problems are increasing and the situation has worsened after the recent floods.

Rizwan Kasi, an environmental lawyer, said before 2012, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) Act was enforced in Balochistan, but after the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, the matter was devolved to provinces. “The EPA Act was passed but even ten years after its passage, its rules of business have not been formulated.”

He said other provinces have hired highly qualified experts in their EPAs, but this is not the case in Balochistan. “Here surveys are being conducted by people who do not have basic expertise. Now a couple of relevant people have been hired, though,” he said.

Kasi said the Balochistan High Court (BHC) had ruled that no crushing plant or furnace would be installed within a 60 km radius of Quetta. He said this order was implemented for some time but later authorities started to allow violations of this ruling.

He said there is a re-legislation regarding plastic bags which is welcome.

“The effects of climate change are occurring all over the world, but the world is taking steps to deal with it. However, Balochistan is lagging behind.”

Niaz Kakar, conservator Quetta and the project director of 10 Million Trees Tsunami, said climate change is a threat not only to Balochistan but to the whole world. “Balochistan itself is not responsible for even one percent of pollution that triggers climate change and causes disasters like recent floods,” Kakar said. He said that Balochistan is also facing a drought situation but the government has not paid much attention to it. “The 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project which was started by former prime minister Imran Khan will have very beneficial effects in the future,” he added. “Our biggest problem is that we do not take responsibility as a society. Everyone should plant a tree and take care of it.”

He claimed that the provincial forest department is taking a number of measures to protect the forests “but people are still unaware of these measures because of lack of publicity.”