Urban flooding has become a common occurrence in cities big and small across the country. It is undeniable that Nature's response to man-made destruction of water bodies has had a devastating impact on the people living in the low-lying areas. Though environmental activists have been raising alarm over various issues like pollution, encroachment and dumping of waste inside water bodies for decades, justice has somehow become elusive.
For activists like Dr Lubna Sarwath, who has been relentlessly fighting the Telangana government in courts for protecting water bodies, it is her effort more than the results that will drive change.
A daughter of Hyderabad, Lubna had left her managerial position at Punjab National Bank to pursue a PhD in Islamic Economics in Indonesia. Her thesis on the “theory of unity of knowledge” had laid the foundation for her work on lakes, economy, environment, and ethics through education. She had significantly questioned how ‘war and industries’ were ignored in the Copenhagen Summit in 2009.
Her most notable work has been on protecting Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar, the twin reservoirs built by the Nizam, after the devastating floods of 1908 in Hyderabad. The reservoirs became the protective shield for the twin-cities against flooding, and also a drinking water source.
As per GO 111 issued in 1996 which the present State government has decided to repeal, construction and polluting industries in 84 villages in the catchment areas of the two reservoirs has been prohibited.
“It is a deceit to the people, a pack of lies being spread by the government that the land value of the farmers will increase benefiting them. It is only the land value that they seek. Unfortunately the people living in those villages are not educated about GO 111. Agriculture, horticulture and floriculture are permitted in those villages, and there is an explicit mention in it that these activities need to be encouraged. Farmers should have been incentivised but it didn’t happen,” she says.
“It is a wonderful irrigation system where Musi river flows from Ananthagiri Hills 690 metres above sea level, to the twin reservoirs located at 600 metres, supplying water to Hyderabad located at 550 metres, all through gravity. They could have expanded the system, as this area has been receiving excess rainfall. They neither harvested water, nor have they tried to restore the existing capacity of the reservoirs, which have been mostly encroached upon,” she adds.
She has been warning on the streets and in the court that repeal of GO 111 will have a devastating impact on Hyderabad, but the State government has been dismissing it as propaganda.
She filed a public interest litigation against the state government for issuing an order in 2022, for spending Rs 7,000 crore for setting-up sewage treatment plants (STP) in the lakes, reservoirs and tanks across the city.
“It is a myth that STPs will be beneficial. They not only occupy space inside the full tank level of water bodies, but are also energy guzzlers which will put a huge burden on the state exchequer,” she claims, reminding of the JICA (Japanese International Cooperation Agency) project which was taken up with Rs 360 crore for the Himayath Sagar Catchment Improvement Project, where huge sewage pipes, interception and diversion structures were built and STPs installed, which she claims has done nothing to improve the condition of the reservoir.
“Diversion is not the solution to pollution. It needs to be handled at the vicinity from where it originates,” she asserts.
She suggests decentralisation in solid and liquid waste segregation, composting, reuse and disposal at the ward and village levels, using multiple alternative methods like using dry latrines, twin-pit system, bio-toilets, Finland methodology of dry and wet waste segregation and other technologies, which are already in use.
“I have been telling the government to have a research and development wing so that they can be abreast with the demands and they can take the opinions from the society,” she emphasises.
She has filed more than a dozen cases in the courts for protecting the water bodies. Though a court judgment preventing the dewatering of Hussain Sagar lake went in her favour, she points out that the issue remains unresolved.
Most of her other cases have been reserved for order. No closure yet.
“The judiciary is culpable, if the city faces drought or drowning,” she says, citing a reply from a court on her request for information on the cases related to water bodies. She was told that the courts didn’t have the manpower to give the required information.
“Whatever good that you are doing, the reward is that you are able to do it,” she quotes from the holy Quran, when asked how she feels about some of her efforts not achieving the desired results either legally or politically.
Lubna had contested from the Hyderabad Lok Sabha segment in 2014, Karwan assembly constituency in 2018 and also for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election for Asif Nagar division. She has been approached by various political parties in the past, and has held posts in the Socialist Party (India) and Aam Aadmi Party.
She is also the state president of the Water Resources Council and the Women’s India Chamber of Commerce and Industry.