‘Upcoming master plan for Karachi may fail like several previous ones’

The upcoming master plan for Karachi that is being devised under the title ‘Greater Karachi Master Plan 2047’ may prove to be a failure like several previous master plans because it is being formed on the basis of inaccurate data without due consultations with experts who understand the demographics and problems of the city.

Urban planner Mohammad Toheed stated this at a discussion titled ‘Karachi’s Abandoned Master Plan’ held on Thursday afternoon at the Climate Action Centre in collaboration with The Citizenry, a research-based journalism organisation that focuses on policy issues.

He said that although the government had been bragging about the new master plan for Karachi that would provide guidelines for the city’s development till 2047, it may meet the fate similar to some previous master plans for the city that were neglected or discarded.

He criticised the Sindh government for engaging a Lahore-based consultant to make a master plan for Karachi. The urban planner said Karachi was a complex city and even those who had spent years understanding its issues could not claim that they had completely understood its complete dynamics. In such a context, inviting a consultant from another city and giving it a year or so to form a master plan for Karachi would create no value, he said.

The discussion was moderated by The Citizenry’s lead researcher Sadya Siddiqui. Giving the historical context of the idea of master plan, she said that after the 1666 Great Fire of London, then monarch Charles II invited architects to form a plan for repairing and developing London. She added that in the 20th century, especially in the aftermath of the World War II, countries began realising the need for plans for their cities that would provide blueprint for their development.

She said the master plan provided roadmap for construction, land use and provision of civic amenities for coming decades. Currently, in Pakistan, there was a master plan for Peshawar till 2042 and another for Lahore till 2050, she added.

Sadya said six to seven master plans had been formed for Karachi in the past. The last master plan for the megacity was formed in 2007 but it was soon abandoned, she said. Later, Toheed remarked that the current population data of Karachi was flawed, and if the consultant devised the city’s master plan after making projections on the basis of the census data, such a plan was doomed to fail.

He claimed that at any given time, the number of people present in Karachi was around 30 million, but the census figures showed it was around 20 million. He added that the government needed accurate information about the demography of the city, which it did not have.

The urban planner explained that before forming the master plan, the authorities should know the number of people in Karachi who were living as tenants and those who had their own properties so that an accurate forecast of housing demand could be made.

He also criticised the fact that the master plan had been undertaken by the Sindh local government department. The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation should have been working on it, he said, adding that the provincial government had usurped many functions of the municipality, due to which there was chaos and confusion.

For instance, Toheed said the Lyari and Malir rivers and likewise other drains like the Gujjar Nulllah were natural storm drains of Karachi that were not supposed to carry sewage. He lamented that as the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board failed to upgrade the sewerage infrastructure of the city over the years, it started using those storm drains of the city as sewerage lines and sewage was directed to them.

In a similar manner, as the solid waste management authority failed to effectively dispose of solid waste, these natural waterways became a dumping ground for waste and were eventually clogged leading to urban flooding during the rain.

Toheed said that although these storm water drains were carrying sewage and solid waste, both the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) and Karachi Water & Sewerage Corporation refused to clean them saying that managing these drains was the task of the KMC.

Yasir Husain of the Climate Action Centre attributed many problems of Karachi to what he said its colonial character. He said the British colonisers developed the city on the basis of their colonial mindset and there were areas of the city reserved for the “White” people.

Husain said that although the British left, their colonial mindset persisted. Citing an example, he said that when the families displaced from Orangi and Gujjar nullahs approached the high court for not being paid the house rent they were promised, the mayor had the audacity to tell the court that the payment was stopped because the families had stopped asking for it.

He also highlighted how clandestinely affairs of the city were being run. He informed the audience that a strategy to deal with climate change under the title ‘Karachi Climate Action Plan’ was being formed but nobody knew its progress as every development was taking place behind closed doors.

He, however, expressed the hope that due consultations would be made for the Greater Karachi Master Plan 2047. Journalist Hawwa Fazal explained how neglecting the previous master plans had brought misery to underprivileged communities. She gave the example of the development of DHA Phase VIII, stating that it was not included in any master plan for the city.

She said the authorities reclaimed land from the sea out of greed, which had disastrous consequences for the fishing community that depended on those waters that were converted into land.

She warned that a similar project near Hawkesbay would destroy the mangroves and their ecosystem in the area as some authorities were trying to make a housing society along the coast.

The discussion became interesting on the issue of displacements along the Orangi and Gujjar nullahs. As Hawwa stated that those whose houses were demolished were living their illegally, the government could not be fully blamed for the crisis that emerged there after the demolitions, the other speakers disagreed and put the entire blame on the government. They said that it was the government’s duty to establish low-cost housing societies for the impoverished class, but as the government failed to do so, people had no choice but to make houses wherever they got the chance as they had to live somewhere.