Technology Desk - Using Social Media to effect change : ECO Environmentalist Ar. Tariq Alexander Qaiser

• Technology Desk
•  Choo Meng Foo
• maudmusing@gmail.com

Ar. Tariq Alexander Qaiser

A great friend I admired when I was involved in a Hospital Master Plan in Karachi (Pakistan) as an Urban Designer. I began to have a better understanding of Pakistan. It was an eye-opener and a great learning experience that tickled my curiosity to understand the remote region east of Central Asia. 

I had been watching the work done by Tariq, impressed by his perseverance and his love for nature. He has been championing the conservation of the waterways and coast of Karachi. Urban development had been destroying the natural habitats of animals and traditional human settlements. His works opened up the conversation between the authorities and the environmentalists to come to terms with sustainable developments. His work is ongoing and admirable. 

With his background as an Architect and environmentalist, he produced a series of Videos over a period of more than three years, documenting the diversity of Floral and Fauna, their changes during the seasons, and the symbiosis with traditional livelihood, proving that they are nature's great creation worthy of preservation and careful management.  Linkedin

Time Magazine features the Bundal Island Environmentalist Effort with a very positive title, The Miraculous Trees That Could Save Pakistan's Largest City from Climate Disaster

Here is a great interview - The Green Hours

A proposed Solution

A long documentation on youtube : EDGE of DELTA - taq and crew

Requote below is a Plead by Tariq

The #TIME MAGAZINE felt that protecting the mangroves of Karachi and Bundal Island IS important. They allocated an 8 page spread in the 4th July 2022 Issue. The story was listed on its cover, it’s image was used on the content page and mentioned as a positive green initiative on a World Overview. It is available in news stands throughout the world. 

It IS very important for Karachi, 

and action needs to be URGENT. 

It is a FACT that:

1- Karachi needs a biodiverse wilderness adjacent to it.

2- The best place for one is on the windward side of Karachi.

3- It already exists, and it needs to be retained, regrown, protected.

4- Karachi’s residents need this ecosystem if they are to survive the coming decades with some semblance of grace and health. 

5- Pakistan needs to avail this opportunity for green credits and international accolades by making a Nature Reserve on the Islands.

BUNDAL ISLAND is in the RIGHT PLACE and is currently a wilderness, save for the under construction Navy helicopter base.

The island has been denuded of its original mangrove growth, only 10% has mangrove cover. About 66% of the island floods twice a day at high tide, some parts by up to 13 feet. If nature is left on its own the mangroves will spread here. My studied estimate is that at the very least 40% to 45% of the island can regenerate life giving mangrove and other halophyte cover naturally.

But… Bundal Island and the adjacent Khaprianwalla Island need to be declared and enforced as a Protected Nature Reserve.

So WHAT is the course of action we need to take? 

WHAT CAN AND 

WHAT WILL WE DO?

The TIME is NOW …

Tariq Alexander Qaiser

8 July 2022

Some of his works on videos:

Back on Bundal Island at high tide 3.13 meters on the 30 of July - a new moon. The following full moon the high tide was 3.66 meters on the 14 of August. 

0.53 meters - 21 inches higher! 

Basically the waist deep water on Bundal island rises to be chest deep!

I could not go… that weekend it rained… the city flooded… roads were blocked…  I was one of the fortunate that could stay dry… on high ground! 

What oh what… will happen to Karachi as sea levels keep rising? 

Tariq Alexander Qaiser

21 August 2022

May the future be sustainable…

May the continuity be equitable…

May we ALL be ‘Khud-Mukhtar’ 

SELF SUFFICIENT …  INDEPENDENT

Just a wish… a thought ?

My offering for today…

CRAB POTS on ‘That Island’… 

& respect for the rope… 

that holds all the pots together.

Music: At Sea - In This World 

SS Code: G4ZYM8GDMX6IHKPX

CRAB POTS on BUNDAL ISLAND

Tariq Alexander Qaiser