Dangerous buildings

Karachi is the perfect example of the problems a city faces when its growth is unplanned and undirected. A combination of a burgeoning middle class and the subsequent increased demand for housing along with a powerful building mafia working in concert with the authorities has led to a mushrooming of high-rise buildings around the city. But this building boom has not been accompanied by provisions for potable water, waste collection and sewage disposal. And, most of all, it has not seen the standards required of safe construction. The city has seen countless buildings ‘collapsing’ over the years, indicating poor construction, shoddy maintenance and general neglect.

The latest has come in the form of another building collapse, this time in Lyari, where at least two people died and 12 were injured when a multi-storey residential building collapsed. This follows another building collapse last Thursday in the Korangi area where four people died. This brings to over 50 the toll of people killed in the collapse of multi-storey buildings this year. The Sindh Building Control Authority has been taken to task by the court for its failure to control construction and to check the quality of building work. The Sindh government has said that the building which fell to the ground in Korangi had been illegally constructed through ‘China-cutting’. Its basement had filled up with water during the recent rains which may have further weakened its foundations. Fortunately, most of the people who lived in the building had previously left but even so the disaster demonstrates just how much risk the people of Karachi run every day and in every situation. It is not the Sindh Building Control Authority alone that can solve the problem. This needs a joint effort by all the authorities involved in taking care of Karachi and controlling construction work or other activity in the country’s largest metropolis.

Sadly, there has been so much neglect, so much corruption and so much decay that it is now difficult to amend matters. However, something will need to be done. The provincial government of course, holds primary responsibility for ensuring this. There has been much coverage of the state of Karachi, its sewerage system, it’s illegal constructions and its other works over the last few days. It is time now for action. We cannot say with clarity who is to begin such action or how it will occur, but we cannot have one building after the other fall to the ground. This is quite obvious that these illegal multi-storey buildings were badly built with poor quality building materials and possibly poor engineering. An inquiry has been ordered by the Sindh government. But inquiries are not enough. The lives lost cannot be brought back. What we need to do is to work more effectively and more efficiently to prevent further loss of life so that people are spared the misery and the horror they go through each time such an incident occurs in the city and people are left in a situation where the debris of their homes lie before them and their loved ones are lost.