Gul Bahao

Yesterday, Nargis Latif of Gul Bahao was invited as guest speaker by Mr. Sultan Raza faculty member of the Institute of Business Administration to speak to the students. After the opening remarks of Mr. Raza, a bouquet was presented to Nargis Latif. Nargis said that Gul Bahao’s thirteen years of research has yielded the slogan of “Karachi’s Gift to the world”. According to her these “gifts” include “Paaki Paani”, (water purifying method), Chandi Ghar (alternate housing), Instant Compost (organic fertilizer), fuel pack (alternate fertilizer). Nargis claimed that some individuals have even begun to plagiarize these innovations

Nargis revealed that Gul Bahao’s latest innovation Fuel Packs has come at a time when the issue of cheap fuel has become one of the greatest challenges. Giving details of this, Nargis said that the organization had a contract for collecting waste material from 200 Factories which enabled it to experiment. The result she said has come out in the shape of a block weighing 10-12 kilos of size 6x17x21 inches. The contents are mostly wood waste and other non toxic waste. It has been tried experimentally and gives best results in furnaces where it has shown to have a good burning quality.

Nargis said that the vast majority of people are still unfortunately not aware of Gul Bahao’s program. For this groundwork has been done to bring university students, faculty members, research workers, businessmen, professionals such as architects, social workers and N.G.O’s counselors and Nazims of UCs as well as government functionaries on one platform. The result she said will be the formation of a body which will support and monitor Gul Bahao’s working. The coming week Gul Bahao has announce a meeting of all these stakeholders at a local hotel.

Giving an example of businessmen seeking involvement in her programs she gave the example of a manufacturer of P.E.T bottles. She said that she approached the proprietor of ECO Pack that his bottles could be used by millions of people for purifying their drinking water by the simple technique called Paaki Paani, innovated by Gul Bahao. At the same time she said that good and cheap raw material for making these would come from the Safai Kamai banks, a concept given by Gul Bahao. Infact she said that the industry as a whole would gain tremendously from the Safai Kamai bank, which will provide the necessary raw material for the industry.

A student from the audience remarked that the Safai Kamai bank is in fact a copy of our Kabari system. Why does Gul Bahao claim it to be its own creation? To this Nargis Latif replied that just as the financial bank is in fact a modern version of the usurers business, the supermarket a modern version of the grocery shop, the Safai Kamai is the 21st century version of the Kabari. Nargis Latif said that it is a law of history that new ideas take time to be acceptable. The C.N.G or L.P.G gas for transport was not being taken seriously by the people for a long time. Similarly Gul Bahao’s innovations will have to go through the test of time.

The speaker regretted that there is an over emphasis on high tech. People forget that China’s economy today is in fact the end result of the simple technology developed during the socialist revolution, when hard work and creative thought was harnessed to revive the economy. Mao Tse Tung spoke of “Let a thousand flowers bloom”. Concluding Nargis Latif said Gul Bahao is going to give yet another slogan: “Zindagi Ban Jai Sasti aur Aasaan”

On Saturday, Nargis Latif of Gul Bahao was invited to speak at the weekly meeting of the Rotary club, (sunset millennium) at Karachi’s Marriot hotel. The secretary Mr. Ahmed Ghulam Hussein introduced the speaker in the following words: “She is a life fellow of Ashoka Foundation, an American N.G.O. Her activities have been covered by BBC, ZEE T.V and most of the Pakistani channels, like ARY, Indus, P.T.V, AAJ, Sindh T.V etc.”

Without beating about the bush, Nargis said, her organization has come up with innovations which are “Karachi’s gift to the world”. “We are making history”, she said. These innovations include alternate housing (pre-fabricated housing made from plastic waste), alternate energy, garbage ‘n gold bank, water purify technique etc. “Let Karachi and its people own these innovations before the world takes them up”, she said. Gul Bahao has spent more than Rs 3 crores on these innovations, which are world class and which will make a name for Pakistan.

Nargis Latif said that a certain amount of interest has been generated amongst local entrepreneurs, real estate investors and business men in the “Chandi Ghar” or pre-fabricated housing. A well known business man, Mr. Siddique Skaikh has placed an order of a warehouse in “Landhi” and has even offered to market these “Chandi Ghars” in the future.

People in the interior of Sindh have shown a keen interest in these houses because of easy availability of land as well as the ease of putting up these structures. The latest development in this innovation is its insulation quality. The houses are very cool in summer and warm in winter, due to extensive use of aluminum foil.

During the talk Nargis was also asked questions about the environment. She said that these days there is a good deal of alarm being sounded in different forum about port Qasim and Karachi Port Trust in danger of being destroyed due to the pollution caused by the city’s sewage water. Nargis Latif said that now it has become absolutely necessary that the polluted water be stopped from entering the sea and rivers and that the sewage system is totally decentralized and the waste water is dealt with on an as is where is basis. This can only be done if trees and shrubs are grown along the sewage “Nallahs” to suck up the dirty water. Nargis said that aforestation in the cities should be linked up with sanitation. Fast growing trees may be grown for their wood which may be chopped occasionally to make room for more trees, while plantations should take place throughout the year. This way gutter water will be used up by shrubs and trees so that less and less of it falls into the rivers and seas. Also nurseries and gardens must be encouraged to use sewage water. Use of fresh water for horticulture must be discouraged.

Mr. Ahmed Bayat of the club while presenting his vote of thanks to the founder of Gul Bahao said that the club members would help to raise both funds and soft loans for the organization.

Nargis Latif of Gul Bahao was invited as chief guest and key note speaker at a meeting of the Karachi Rotary club east. The topic of her speech was “Waste – A valuable resource”. Nargis Latif started her speech with Gul Bahao’s jingle, “Kutcra Sona Hey” which drew plenty of applause from the audience. She said that while on the one hand Karachi’s garbage has the potential to destroy the city, on the other hand it is a veritable gold mine, one indication being the cottage industry that it sustains.

The speaker presented a hypothesis of a Garbage n’ Gold (GnG) Bank where wet (organic) and dry (inorganic) garbage is bought. She said that Gul Bahao has researched all kinds of waste material being produced in the city and the GnG bank is the center of the scheme. Presently only dry garbage or non toxic industrial waste is being handled here. The GnG Bank has been performing the following functions:

1. Selling the bulk as raw material to middlemen and factories. It was pointed out that there are two markets Godhra and Machar Colony which are respectively taking cloth and polythene. All kinds of paper and cardboard are also sent out. Between March and July 2006 more than 30 lacs worth of wastage was sold out.

2. Waste material related to wood like wood shavings, broomsticks laminated paper, small bits of cloth; even dry twigs are used to make alternative fuel.

3. A good deal of the waste at the GnG bank includes shopping bags and other industrial waste. This lends itself easily to an entirely new concept of bricks called was-tic blocks to be used for prefabricated housing having the common name of “Chandi Ghar” These blocks can be put up in hours and dismantled just as quickly Nargis Latif showed dozens of photographs of houses made up of was-tic blocks to the audience. At this stage. Nargis suggested that a huge market for these prefabricated structures is the Haj season or any other religious occasion where temporary housing is required.

Nargis told the audience that while research on organic waste done by Gul Bahao is comparatively less yet the amount that has been done are worth talking about as organic waste comprises more than 50% of our waste.

Nargis said that the livestock market put up on the super highway at the time of Eid-ul Azha should be an indication of how much potential there is in livestock and hence the use of organic waste like vegetable and fruit peels and leaves. This wastage if collected in a clean manner can be used for rearing livestock in the suburbs of the city or wherever buildings cannot be erected.

The speaker also talked about biomass or trees growing on gutter water or even factory effluents which are polluting the rivers and the seas. For arguments sake even if poisons are taken up by the trees, their wood would not be eaten by humans, the wood would go into making furniture.

Towards the end there was a question answer session, followed by a vote of thanks from Mr. Iqbal Alavi, the secretary of the Rotary Club. A memento was also presented to the managing trustee of Gul Bahao.