n keeping with the tradition, it was decided that the meeting on the last Wednesday of every month will be resumed at Tollinton Market. Members of the reincarnated Conservation Society (CS) braved the heaviest downpour in recent memory.

Aandhi aye ya toofaan, diya jalaey rakhna was the motto on everyone’s mind. A number well above the quorum had shown up. They then proceeded to select 12 board members. They reposed trust in this scribe to assume charge as the president of CS; Muhammad Javed was elected as vice president.

Those who were stranded because of the showers sent in their regrets.

It was deemed necessary to ponder over the recent threat to the cultural heritage of the city posed by the self-proclaimed powers, however ‘interim’ they may be. The usurpation of the Department of Archaeology by the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) too was discussed and condemned.

Everyone seemed worried about the fate of the World Heritage sites in Pakistan. A UNESCO meeting in Paris has already recommended putting Venice on the endangered places list due to the overflow of tourists and climate change. Human intervention and continued development activities in the form of high-rise apartments cause irreversible damage. Finding the measures taken by the Italian government as insufficient, the UNESCO group shall further discuss the issue in a meeting scheduled to be held in Riyadh next month. (On a lighter note, some delinquent is said to have scribbled on the walls of the house of a damsel: Mariana ti amo.)

As the velocity of the downpour increased, the subject matter of the CS’s discussions shifted focus because Lahore, too, seemed to present the look of Venice where the roads had submerged to form canals from the great lagoon. The vehicles appeared to be floating like the Venetian gondolas. One lone Lahori tonga seemed to defy all odds. Its shimmering chrome-orange colour and the proud brown horse seemed to claim a comeback. Although defeated by the motorcycle rickshaw it demonstrated its utility in the flooded streets. Children, whose wish for bathing in rainwater had been granted, came running (or swimming) to the floating ‘gondola’. Kaalian ittaan kaalay ror, min barsaaday zor o zor.

Though the freshly repaired Tollinton hall showed only rare leaking points, a peek through the windows served an all-water view. It was raining heavily. The traffic outside was jammed. Soon, water had flooded all of The Mall. There were reports that the entire city had been inundated.

Liquids maintain their levels, it is said. But that day, all laws of liquid state physics were defied. It was not climate change, but a manmade disaster.

Most of the Punjab was flooded, and the earth wasn’t ready to absorb more moisture. One had to look around for the environmental breakdowns. The Walled City was built over a man-made mound, thus the highest point was where the Paani Wala Talaab had been built for distribution of water. In Istanbul too, Taksim is said to be the highest point in the natural terrain. Just as the hilly topography of the former Ottoman Empire’s capital allows the water from rains/ melted snows to flow down quickly, in the Walled City of Lahore too water quickly escaped into the natural drains. The expansion outside the obsolete city walls too was properly planned in the linear design. Rainwater, which is the purest form of H₂O and called blue gold, has been collected in village ponds since the Indus Civilisation days.

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The water tank on Queens/ Waris Road has long filled up with debris to be used to build a plaza in its place at an opportune moment, even though it is an Evacuee Trust property. The tank can be restored with very little cost to deter the designs of evil encroachers. All natural rainwater channels were retained and incorporated in the drainage system.

The canal is the lifeline of the local flora and fauna, and irrigates most greenbelts. Another tributary from the olden Ravi supplied water as well as absorbed the wastewater. Small tributaries form the canal irrigated all the fresh water drains along The Mall, as far as the University of the Punjab.

There were a number of dry drains to take the excess monsoons waters. All these extra measures or safety valves seem to have choked, resulting in the flooding of even wider roads like The Mall.

The Ghulam Rasul Trust Building on The Mall was deprived of its imposing dome some years back, and all monsoon rains have since been finding their way down to its basements. The promise to get it covered with a dome was just a lollypop.

Posh localities like Garden Town and Gulberg, too, have not been spared. Ustad Latif Chughtai once told me that it was in 1904 that the streets outside the Walled City had been inundated by heavy rains and boats were seen rescuing the marooned. The following year ie, in 1905, a very strong earthquake damaged many landmarks of the city including the western façade of Tollinton (where this meeting was being held), Free Mason Hall on the Lodge Road, and the City Railway Station. It is hoped that this natural calamity will not be followed by shifting of tectonic plates.

The road along the canal, however, presented Noah’s flooding. The causes were multiple, all man-induced. As the trees along the protected Green Heritage had been stealthily felled, the made soil over which the road had been expanded caved in at various points, especially in the Muslim Town vicinity. Several sink holes appeared, big and deep enough to accommodate cars along with the unsuspecting occupants.

The canal, too, had not been desilted for some years, which has reduced its capacity. The authorities had a bright idea of raising a wall on its two sides to ensure that the overflowing water would not enter the houses on the sides. Prof Irshad Ali’s house in Usman Block, too, has been flooded twice. Building a wall would be like raising the capacity of a dam filled with silt.

Other posh areas too did not escape the threat of drowning. A large portion of a very wide concrete sewerage pipe imploded at several points in Johar Town’s Allah Hu Chowk. The traffic which hadn’t been forewarned was condemned to take detours of the impossible kind.

It is important to visit the problem areas instead of relying on hearsay. The officials should do more than photo shoots. It was suggested at the CS meeting that every member is responsible for conveying the news and providing first-aid measures. Every member shall carry at least two bottles of water with them in the car to put out any burning garbage. They are also expected to promote such activities. Raja Usman Aurangzaib sent the video image of his endeavours. Commendably so.

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Another menace is the business of release of captive birds against ransom money. These birds, netted from different places even during the incubating season, are brought to Lahore. When released in a faraway precinct, the chances of their survival are scant, as they cannot feed themselves in an alien environment. The Wildlife Department should be approached to help curb this evil practice.

All this is harming Lahore’s fauna. The problems faced by this megacity are endless. Those who attended the meeting when it was raining cats and dogs, had to struggle really hard to get back home, but I’m sure it was an ‘experience’ worthy of being narrated to their grand- and great-grandchildren. After all, on July 26, 2023, Lahore roads had rivalled the canals of Venice. There were reports of World Heritage sites (which had been taken over by WCLA) having been inundated. All this will be oral history.

PS: An exhibition of paintings, titled My Lahore, will open at Coopera Art Gallery on August 19. It will be inaugurated by Mustansar Hussain Tarrar at 3pm

(This dispatch is dedicated to the legal advisor, Mirza Zia Ur Rehman)

The writer is a painter, a founding member of Lahore Conservation Society and Punjab Artists Association, and a former director of NCA Art Gallery. He can be reached at ajazart@brain.net.pk