LAHORE: From the Defence Housing Authority as you enter the area that falls under the Walton Cantonment Board, a ramshackle collection of brick and cheap cement houses, the altering landscape sets an example of visual disparity.

From spotlessly clean, wide streets and beautifully-built houses the view shifts to unplanned dwellings standing amid heaps of filth and stench emanating from sewers.

“The area looks like it has never been taken care of. Our children play on these streets amidst all the dirt and litter. How can they stay healthy?” complained a resident of Keer Khurd Colony.

Walton Cantonment Board office assistant secretary, when asked about the unhygienic conditions, blamed the residents for not keeping these colonies clean.

He deplored lack of hygiene awareness among the area residents who mostly belonged to lower socio-economic stratum.

“The Cantonment Board is spending enough money and doing as much as it can for the development of the area. The problem will never be entirely resolved if the people do not cooperate (with the Board).”

Be it Nishat Colony or Ali View Garden Society, residents all across Cantonment Board are facing water shortage. People relying on government supply lamented being out of water for days in spite of using electric motors to get better flow.

“One of the major reasons of water shortage is the unplanned growth of these societies. There are many houses that have been built illegally. So, the water intended to be supplied to 500 houses is actually being used by 1,500, resulting in scarcity”, explained the Board’s enforcement officer.

The assistant secretary mentioned the tube wells and filter plants installed across the Cantonment Board’s jurisdiction in order to overcome the problem.

With fungi all over the walls of one of the filter plants, intolerable stink and the look of the floor that reminds you more of public toilets on the GT Road, arises the question of maintenance of these plants.

“As I went to fetch water from a filter plant one day last year, it was being cleaned. What they were cleaning out from the filters seemed to me like insects but I cannot say for sure. Whatever it was, I cannot drink water from the plant anymore,” said Rehma Bibi, a resident of Ali View Garden Society.

The Cantonment Board officials, however, denied such allegations and insisted the filter cartridges were changed regularly.

Moreover, the residents dependent on government supply also complained of getting highly impure and contaminated water causing stomach-related diseases and oral infections among residents.

There were not many complaints about the drainage and sewerage systems. However, people living in extremely narrow streets lamented slow flushing out of rainwater which caused not just mobility issues but also gave rise to diseases like Malaria.

Cantonment Board office claimed to be currently restoring sewerage system at many places in the area.

Some residents mentioned MNA Saad Rafique paying frequent visits to the areas and taking care of dengue threat. “But that is all,” one of them said.

“The revenue that we generate through the taxes and the funds we are given are used for making these areas better places to live in,” claimed the assistant secretary.

Furthermore, he said though these areas fall under Cantonment, the government should also realise its responsibility towards their development at some level.

He said there were still many development plans in the pipeline which would be executed as soon as the government approved funds for the purpose.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2014