The environment of Bahawalpur

Four environments, one district

Bahawalpur division runs from the Sutlej in the north to the deep Cholistan in the south. Within an hour's drive you pass a river channel that is dry for most of the year, an intensively irrigated belt of cotton, wheat and mango, a mixed scrub forest at Lal Suhanra, and open desert rangeland dotted with toba rainwater ponds.

Waste management

The city generates roughly 500 tonnes of solid waste a day, and the share that is burned rather than collected is the single biggest local contributor to winter particulate pollution. Our work here is unglamorous: ward-level segregation trials, three community compost points, and a plastic-free bazaar day that has now run eleven times.

Biodiversity

Native species are the cheapest environmental infrastructure available. Kikar, shisham, jand, karir, date palm and neem survive here without irrigation once established, host far more insect life than eucalyptus, and do not drop the water table. Our nurseries have shifted to 80% native stock.

Cholistan desert

Cholistan is not empty land; it is rangeland with a pastoral economy and a fragile water system. Dune stabilisation along the Derawar road, repair of traditional toba ponds, and rotational grazing agreements with herder families do more for the desert than fencing it off.

Solar energy

Diesel tubewells are expensive and dirty; the sun here delivers over 5.3 kWh per square metre per day. Solar tubewells in Cholistan and rooftop systems on schools cut both the fuel bill and the load on an overstretched grid.