July 26, 2020

The poor left to suffer in Pakistan’s mega city

topic:	Good Governance
located:	Pakistan
editor:	Shadi Khan Saif

Failure of the state institutions in Pakistan has once again been exposed by the heartbreaking images of school girls crying for help in the city of Karachi during recent torrential rains.

The city was engulfed in filthy sewage water for days while the messy electric lines posed another deadly threat to the city dwellers. And this is a metropolis of some 20 million inhabitants, which is often called as the ‘city of lights’, a nickname that sounds more like absurdity than reality currently.

For urban administrators with some level of dignity, the circulating images of school girls caught inside running sewage water as high as four feet, are more than enough to either quit or roll-up their sleeves and not rest until the mess is cleaned, and does not repeat itself again.

The problem arises during this time every year because major sewage lines, as well as the inner-city sanitation lines, simply choke during monsoon season, causing losses of lives and property as well as a sheer nuisance on a mammoth scale.

The poor and marginalised living in informal settlements on the outskirts have been bearing the brunt of relentless and unregulated urbanization for the ‘rich and powerful’ close to the Arabian Sea where the sewerage lines are supposed to discharge without any hurdle.

As cities worldwide lead global sustainable development initiatives such as the green energy, fight against plastic bags and other innovative ideas, Karachi has been left at the mercy of multiple ruling parties on different tiers of administration engulfed in mud-throwing at each other.

Rather than creating spaces for forestation and rainwater collection in and around the city, which already faces a crippling water crisis, the ruling quarters remain indifferent and in fact involved in land-grabbing on key sanitation routes causing the blockage of sewage systems in the first place.

The monsoon season offers a small window in summer for the rapidly growing city in terms of addressing its drinking water and sanitation issues. Yet, it remains to be dealt with as a serious issue and is taken by the elite ruling quarters as a time for enjoyment while the poor suffer.

This cycle will not change until major corporate giants, particularly in the property sectors linked to the powerful army, continue to relentlessly reclaim the shoreline.

Image by babbur

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