Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Islamabad sizzling

Recently the temperature is stuck around 40 degrees C (108 F)... Our house is like a oven (having no AC). And on top of that someties there is power outage. Don't know how people sleep at night in this weather. But I should not complain... There is running water and electricity, a luxury for the middle and poorer classes of the country... There is no regular 'loadshedding' here, at least in our area. In Karachi, they are saying that there is daily loadshedding of electricity for many hours. Water is a problem all over the country, including the bold and beautiful Islamabad... Only in our area Naval Colony we are no facing any serious water shortages as they have dug a new well. I wonder what will they do after a few years, when even this new well dries up. All over Islamabad, people are digging wells with motor pumps (as a result water pipe prices have suddenly sky rocketed).

People are concerned for their own water, their own electricity and own comfort. Their actions are motivated by personal interest and only for the present... No future oriented thinking. Living in the present is good but our actions that can have far reaching affects should share some responsibility for future. We owe at least something to the future generations.

In the public discourse, I haven't observed any paranoia, fear, anger or just a heated discussion on the water problem. People are happy to dig new wells or discuss the dam issues. It seems that perhaps we are waiting for an emergency to take any action. Or we are too scared to face the reality!!!

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