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FEBRUARY
2010
ISSUES:
Environmental
degradation
Karachi
sinking in its own waste
The
environmental degradation and humiliation in ghetto areas and other
parts of the metropolis was contemplated as the great concern for the
artists who exhibited their self-made illustrations and short
documentaries of devastating ecological conditions in 'Mai Kolachi' site
at the exhibition of seminal art on ecology held on Saturday evening at
Karachi Arts Council hosted by NuktaArt Magazine, visiting Arts UK and
AICA Pakistan.
It was the first exhibition of its kind in Pakistan that extensively
focused on the ecology of Karachi attended by several students, art
lovers, environmental experts and other progressive figures of the
society.
Nukta Art for its project 'One Mile Square' invited the four visual
artists from Karachi including Arif Mahmood, Adeel-uz-Zafar, Faraz Abdul
Mateen and Nameera Ahmed in an attempt to engage them with issues that
pertain to human and environmental context within the coastal belt.
Participant artists displayed their artistic work and documentaries
pertaining to different ecological issues resulting its rapid
devastation.
The devastated conditions of mangroves, discharging of solid water
resulting contaminated water, loss of biodiversity, severe health
hazards for the nearby residing people and the entire dilapidated
condition of the Mai Kolachi site was radiantly depicted at the event in
form of art pictures, while the destruction of natural habitats and
other loss of biodiversity in various outskirts areas of the metropolis
were screened on small projectors that bagged the attention of visitors.
Exhibition was aimed to create cognizance among the viewers to make them
realize their ethical responsibility towards environment and become a
focal figure in reshaping and betterment of ecological conditions in the
city as well as the entire country.
Mai Kolachi is today a barren wasteland exposed to devastating
ecological and urban degrdation, linking the localities of Sultanabad
and Hijrat colonyon one side, and chinna creek on the other, to
karachi's financial center and the port, its strategic location has made
it victim to callous and devastating and reclamation projects.
Over
a period of six weeks, the artists team studied the effects of the
ecological disasters that can be created by the disappearance of the
mangroves, such as exposing the city to tsunamis and raising the water
table of the coastal residential areas due to sea and land pollution. A
major source contamination is the untreated sewage, which empties into
my kolachi through three main drains (nullahs).
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Shehri, Urban
Resource Center and the Shirkat Gah assisted the artists in providing
the necessary resource material to grapple with the immensity of
Karachi's environmental crisis.
The body of art-work created in this short time reflects diverse
artistic voices, both in terms of the material and conceptual content.
Focusing on the intersections of ethics and aesthetics it pushes the
artist to think outside the box, as it also hopes to challenge the
viewer to rethink their collective responsibility of the city.
(By Sarfraz
Ali, The Nation, 24/01/2010)
The
ever-growing population
In
July 2012 the world’s population will reach the seven billion mark,
which means a jump of one billion since 1999. In stark contrast, it took
123 years for the global population to rise from one to two billion
between 1804 and 1927.
The three billion figure was touched only 33 years later, by 1960. Since
then growth has picked up more pace with a billion being added to the
population every 12 to 14 years. Most of this escalation can be
attributed to underdeveloped countries where as much as 60 per cent of
the people subsist on two dollars a day.
Prominent amongst these countries are those blighted by high inflation
and poor governance. Conversely, Europe and Japan with per capita
incomes of roughly $30,000 show static or declining populations.
In 2009, which happened to be its platinum anniversary, the British
Council launched a study to capture the attitudes and needs of Pakistan’s
youth in the 21st century. Titled Pakistan: The Next Generation, the
study was based on a survey of 1,500 young people between the ages of 18
and 30. It was said at the study’s presentation that “It is the next
generation [which wants] to help a nation … tired of poverty and
hunger, of disappointment and hardship”. Theoretically, Pakistan
enjoys the demographic dividend (DD) to do exactly that. Nearly 67 per
cent of its inhabitants are less than 30 years old and only four per
cent are over 65. In the world of economics, demographics is an
important determinant of growth. Its impact can be measured by the
number of economically active people relative to those who are inactive.
For instance, if 75 per cent of people work while others are studying or
unemployed, the economy will fare better than in a situation where only
50 per cent produce while the remainder are inactive.
When this ratio rises, the economy grows and people enjoy greater
discretionary income. Having a young population like ours is a great
boon in this equation. But the decisive element here is productivity.
Two things are fundamental to the dividend: ample employment
opportunities and a commensurately trained or educated workforce. The
challenges we face in both areas are daunting. Pakistan’s workforce of
51 million suffers from an unemployment rate of 15 per cent. At the same
time, 70 per cent of children do not reach secondary school and only
five per cent enter universities.
It is not reasonable to expect the government to provide job openings.
The overriding need is of less government and more private-sector
entrepreneurial involvement. For its part, what the government needs to
provide is an enabling environment and a level playing field.
A segment of our society feels that switching all schooling to English
will immediately uplift our education system. English in itself does not
further education; it is only a mode of communication. Our vernaculars
are better suited to facilitate learning, especially for a wider
cross-section of targeted trainees.
The call is not to equip every student to be a bureaucrat, engineer or
doctor, for the hierarchical constitution of societies requires a wide
base of appropriately trained youths. This warrants focused and mass
vocational training. In egalitarian societies a carpenter or plumber is
as content and productive as his more privileged compatriots.
Consequently, it is important to take a fresh look at how we educate our
youth. Compulsory universal education is essential if we are to progress
but commitments made in this regard have never been implemented.
Madressahs are often quoted as examples of mass education. Despite its
popular association with militancy and terrorism, this is still a
workable model. Without debating our madressahs’ real or perceived
linkages with extremism, let’s analyse what they can provide.
These institutions offer free boarding, lodging and education. This
frees underprivileged parents from the burden of school costs and
concerns about rearing their children. If the government was to
facilitate such parallel institutions in the private sector or through
NGOs, parents who deposit their children in madressahs would readily
agree to the alternative.
All governments of consequence provide free high school education and
this arrangement will be in keeping with that objective. That said, the
government should not take on this responsibility all by itself — the
umpteen ghost schools ‘running’ on taxpayer money are proof enough
of officialdom’s failings. All it needs to do is regulate, strictly
monitor and partially finance these institutions.
White-collar job requirements are more or less met by our existing
education facilities. The primary emphasis should be on making our
children civic-minded citizens with a sense of discipline and equipped
with sound occupational training. In an agrarian country like ours it is
unfortunate that we continue to import essential food items. Little
wonder then that many are moving to urban centres in the hope of finding
livelihoods.
If Pakistan is to become its own granary then we need farmers, cattle
breeders, dairy producers and others to be formally educated in
contemporary techniques. It is not healthy that ancestral abodes are
being abandoned in the ongoing mass migration to the cities. Rural life
provides a special communal support system that should be replicated
rather than squandered. The education and health sectors are abysmally
manned. We have some good doctors but few and below-par health
technicians and nurses. We have PhD professors but inadequately trained
primary and middle school teachers. Investment is required here in the
form of training the trainers.
Growing demands are being made that developed nations should come to our
rescue and help optimise the DD effect. The world owes us nothing and
may not come to our aid in any substantial way. These are problems we
created and we need to resolve them.The two-fold challenge is to ensure
that children get a better education for a better future and the economy
is stimulated to create decent jobs that keep pace with our growing
numbers. If we dither, the demographic dividend may become a Malthusian
millstone. It is projected that Pakistan’s population will rise to 335
million by 2050. We must change our ways before it is too late.
(By
Ahmad Hayat, Daily Dawn, 08/02/2010)
Need
to initiate pro-poor housing schemes
‘Housing
backlog reaches 8.8 million units’
There is dire need to initiate pro-poor housing schemes with a focus on
low income housing and housing finance to over come the housing backlog
in the country that has reached to unprecedented high of 8.8 millions
units.
These views were expressed by the speakers at the briefing session on
‘Housing Finance in Pakistan’ at ABAD house Tuesday. Zaigham Mahmood
Rizvi, Expert Consultant, World Bank, Farhan Fasih Uddin representative
of State Bank of Pakistan, Rizwan Parsani, representative of
International Finance Corporation (IFC) spoke on the occasion.
Zaigham Rizvi said World Bank has focused on the South Asia region for
the promotion of housing development and regarding housing shortfall in
this region WB has also carried out study that will be published
soon.
He said in Pakistan we do not have micro housing financing as large
banks avoid giving big loans to the consumer due to the high default
ratio. ‘We need to have housing finance for lower income people’, he
said.
“There is need to enhance affordability of housing financing and bring
down the financing prices”, he said and added that true implementation
of recovery ordinance is not in the country and we need to implement
it.
Rizvi said the SA Region represents one out of four persons and one out
of two poor on the planet, it is among the lowest in terms of Mortgage
Finance (Average Mortgage Debt to GDP Ratio 3.3). The SA region is faced
with massive housing shortage, Indian Urban Housing shortage 25 million
plus, however in Pakistan housing shortage is around 8.8 million.
He was of the view that nearly the entire urban shortage is in
economically weaker and poor sections, persons per room density in
India/Pakistan are 3.5. EU is 1.1, and in USA is 0.5.
The WB is also focusing on the rehabilitation of slums in this region,
as according to WB statistics slums prevalence in SA is accordingly,
Afghanistan: 80 percent of the Kabul population (2.44 million) live in
slums, damaged or destroyed housing. Bangladesh: 2,100 slums; more than
2 million people in Dhaka live either in slums or are without any proper
shelter, India: 52,000 slums holding 8 million urban households,
representing about 14 percent of the total urban population.
In Pakistan: Karachi alone has between 600-800 slums, sheltering about
7.6 million (or 1 million households) out of the total city population
of 15.1 million people. In Indonesia: 17.2 million families live in
approximately 10,000 slums.
“The government has failed to provide incentive to the housing
industry and now the need is to involve the private sectors developers
and all policy makers for the promotion of housing industry”, he
said.
Rizwan Parsani representative from SBP said that housing industry links
with other allied 40 industries and we have to promote this industry to
save all those 40 industries.
He said that mortgage to GDP ratio in Pakistan is only 0.7 percent
however, in other countries like in India is 4 percent, in China is
around 15 percent and in USA is more than 10 percent. He said that
SBP also promoting long-term instruments of finance. Government is also
approaching multilateral agencies (World Bank, Asian Bank, Islamic
Development Bank) for long-term funds, technical assistance for low cost
construction materials and technologies. The housing shortage in
Pakistan is out of proportion and to address this serious problem,
government, banks and OFI’s would have to take drastic measures, Engr
Farooq-uz-Zaman, Chairman ABAD said.
The
World Bank and IFC have expressed their serious concerns on housing
shortage in Pakistan, said Farooq. If immediate steps are not taken to
tackle the housing issues of Lower and Middle Income Group, the
consequences would be alarming.
Farooq-uz-Zaman, elaborating the problems faced by the housing industry,
further said that the seriousness of the problem could be adjudged from
the fact that at international level the per room occupancy is 3.4
persons, whereas in Pakistan it is 6.7 person per room. He said
that the loan disbursement from HBFC for the last one-year has almost
ceased and lower and middle-income group has totally been ignored. The
Housing Advisory Group, working under the auspices of State Bank of
Pakistan had prepared very comprehensive recommendations on housing in
Pakistan. These recommendations, if implemented, would have a very
positive impact on the problem. If the lower and middle-income groups
are not targeted, no housing finance plan would be able to deliver the
desired results.
Chairman
ABAD ensured full support to banks and other financial institutions in
preparation of mortgage systems. He said the housing finance is by all
means the safest mode as the default ratio is less than 7 percent.
(Daily
Times, 03/02/2010)
CDGK’s
flyovers
AS the face of Karachi changed with the construction of flyovers,
underpasses and signal-free corridors, two distinct opinions emerged
regarding these developments. The first broadly states that such
projects will do little to reduce traffic gridlock. The other school of
thought believes these schemes are just what Karachi needs to bring it
into the 21st century. The issuance of notices to the city government
and the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency regarding alleged
irregularities in the under-construction signal-free corridor IV is the
latest chapter in the ongoing debate. The complaint was filed with Sindh’s
Environmental Protection Tribunal by Shehri, an NGO. It claims the
project’s mode of implementation violates the Pakistan Environmental
Protection Act 1997, as well as the initial environmental examination
and environmental impact assessment regulations of 2000. The complainant
also claims that Sepa did not take action despite the alleged violations
and wants construction stopped and a thorough EIA conducted. Sepa says
there is no need for an EIA as the project “did not have any
significant environmental impact”.
Under Pepa, any project costing over Rs50m requires an EIA, not an IEE,
and corridor IV is said to cost over Rs1.3bn. Perhaps such issues can be
avoided if the relevant agencies simply follow the rules. Every citizen
has the right to a clean environment. And here a clean environment does
not just refer to maintaining verdant green belts, though that is also
important: it means assessing the impact projects will have on the
overall quality of a citizen’s life. Hence the input of residents is
vital before any development project gets off the drawing board. There
is an urgent need for Karachi’s stakeholders to focus on sustainable
development and keeping the public’s well-being a key priority. Method
must be brought to the madness that characterises this metropolis and
its ‘development’.
(Daily
Dawn, 13/02/2010)
Water:
Fit to drink?
Water
is going to become a rare and valuable commodity and potable water is
going to become a significant item in the family budget – especially
if it is 'bought bottled'. There has been a huge expansion in the
bottled water market and in the brands available over the last decade,
but with proliferation has come a dilution of quality and there are now
serious doubts about the safety of some brands of bottled water. The
Lahore High Court recently issued show-cause notices to 28 bottled and
mineral water manufacturers in Punjab who had failed to renew their
licences for the last two years. The judge wanted to know why they
should not be closed; and the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control
Authority (PSQCA) informed the court that some had already been shut
down. The judge went on to observe that… "Owners of the companies
will not learn a lesson until their family members suffer some fatal
disease like hepatitis due to adulterated water."
The judge had a point. As long ago as 2005 the Pakistan Council of
Research of Water Resources (now apparently defunct) stated that of 58
commercially available bottled brands, 22 (38 per cent) were unfit to
drink and were contaminated chemically or bacteriologically, with some
brands being contaminated by both. Arsenic and faecal coliforms featured
heavily in their analysis. The bottled water industry has increased in
volume by over 100 per cent since 2005, and much of what is on offer
today is merely filtered tap water bottled in unhygienic conditions by
workers who are strangers to bodily hygiene. The plastic of which the
bottles are made is sometimes as hazardous as the water they contain.
Polyethylene terephthatate -- known as 'Pet' -- is a potential
carcinogen with linkages to breast and uterine cancers, a decrease in
testosterone levels and an increase in miscarriages – hardly an ideal
substance to make water bottles out of. Demand for bottled water is
growing at around 22 per cent per annum according to Pakistan Economy
Watch (PEW). Over 80 per cent of all infectious diseases are
water-related and over 200,000 children die every year from them in
Pakistan. The scarcity of clean drinking water from natural sources is
driving the market for bottled and unless there is strict enforcement of
standards we may be looking at yet another health disaster in the
making.
(The
News, 17/02/2010)
315
villages to be sanctioned shortly
Of the 808 villages surveyed till 1996 in the city, only 339 were
sanctioned, 154 did not fall within the purview of the Gothabad Act
while 315 others remained unsanctioned.
Providing the statistics in response to a query of MPA Humera Alwani
during the Question Hour in the Sindh Assembly on Thursday, Sindh
Minister for Revenue Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar said that the 315 villages
would be sanctioned within a week.
He said that the villages remained unsanctioned during the previous
regime and it was during the Pakistan People’s Party government that
work was started to provide basic facilities there. He said the surveys
of villages had already been completed and comments prepared. “After
the assembly session is over, these villages will be sanctioned within a
week,” he said.
“It is our responsibility to regularise all old villages/goths,” he
said, adding that 154 villages which were out of the purview of the
Gothabad Act fell in urban areas and would be sanctioned by the land
utilisation department. He made it clear that villages were not notified
for regularisation on the basis of language, because the PPP did not
believe in that. He pointed out that the old villages had a mixed
population.
In reply to another question, he said that Katchi Abadis were the new
settlements on government land without having basic facilities, while
the concept of villages was centuries old.
(Daily
Dawn Friday, 19 Feb, 2010)
2,159
mega projects completed in four years
As
he waited for a Sindh government notification about the dissolution of
the local governments, City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal recounted the
infrastructure development works completed over the past four years of
his government and wished that the base he had prepared for the
multidimensional development of city was fortified and Karachi made the
best city of the world.
Speaking at a gathering of town nazims with the media persons to mark
the end of their 52-month-long tenure at the helm of municipal affairs,
at a local hotel, Kamal said that 2,159 mega projects, each worth Rs30
million to multiple billions, were completed. Besides, 337 big machines
and logistics meant for various amenity works were also purchased.
Referring to the time available with his government to conceive and
implement the big projects, he said: “I am indeed pleased to tell you
that we completed the projects across the city for the benefit of every
citizen of Karachi at an average of 48 projects a month.” He said
that since the beginning of his government he had a vision to improve
the quality of life of citizens irrespective of their political
affiliations and ethnicity and worked for it in coordination with nazims
and administrative forces of all the 18 towns of the city. “Now I deem
it appropriate to extend my gratitude to my party leaders, Governor
Ishratul Ibad Khan, President Asif Ali Zardari, former president Pervez
Musharraf, the city council and the media, who kept guiding and
supporting me and my teams in the city government and town
administrations,” he remarked.
He said that not only the master plan of the city was prepared and given
a legal status for the first time in the history of the city during his
tenure, but his government also completed 35 flyovers and underpasses,
356 parks, 194 water and sanitation projects, 316 major and
supplementary roads, 451 educational projects. As many as 110 projects
were completed in rural areas, he said, adding that in the transport
infrastructure 255 bus stops and 116 pedestrian bridges and a big car
parking plaza were completed.
He said the city government also brought 75 CNG buses on the roads and
also came up with the idea of establishing a Karachi Development Fund,
which would get further impetus in the future.
Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil, nazims of 14 towns, DCO Javed Hanif, KWSB MD
Qutubuddin Shaikh and other senior officers of the city government and
water board were present.
Though Kamal did not take into account a few mega projects and schemes
conceived in the first two years of his government, including that of an
integrated solid waste management scheme, which could not be
implemented, he said his government had recently taken up the solid
waste management issue afresh and decided to build at least five garbage
transport stations on a self-help basis.
The nazim said that with the completion of so many projects, “we have
also planned a lot of projects for future, including K-IV meant for
additional 175 million gallon daily water supply to the city, a sewage
treatment plant, the Karachi mass transit project and circular railway
project to provide more facilities to the citizens. Moreover, the
establishment of two desalination plants was also on the card, he told
the gathering.
He said construction work on the fourth signal-free corridor had been
started. The whole corridor from the PIDC intersection to the airport
would be made signal-free by January/ February 2011, he said, adding
that the signal-free corridor V would run from Sohrab Goth to M.A.
Jinnah Road.
He said the government had also planned to switch to mechanised sweeping
of roads and streets in the entire city as it was already being
practised in big cities. Since the number of sweepers was on the decline
as members of that community were increasingly entering other
professions, “now we would have to adopt machines for cleaning
purposes”. Syed Mustafa Kamal said that although “we tried to serve
each citizen in the city efficiently, there remain chances of
heartburning or wrongdoing and now “very earnestly I submit my apology
for that”, the emotionally-charged nazim said. He urged the citizens
not to allow any deterioration in the process of development, ensure a
hurdle-free journey of development and maintain the infrastructure
developed in the city so far.
(By
Mukhtar Alam, Daily Dawn, 18/02/2010)
Fear
of satellite mapping
THE
people of the Hanuman Masdoor slum have enough to worry about already.
If the women work at all they are poorly paid cleaners. Most of the men
are scavengers, gleaning a pitiful living from recycling the waste of
Delhi’s 14 million inhabitants.
Raw sewage flows past the homes — built over an open drain in the west
of the city — and children play amid the rubbish and flies. Now the
1,000 families who live in the shantytown have fresh problems. The
national government has announced an unprecedented initiative: mapping
India’s slums. Though ministers claim the scheme will make life better
for slum-dwellers, the inhabitants of Hanuman Masdoor are worried.
Supporters of the plan say it will allow municipal authorities to
provide basic utilities where they are lacking and plan education and
health services. But critics say the data gathered by the survey, almost
certainly the biggest of its kind anywhere, will simply open up new
opportunities for India’s notoriously aggressive land mafia.
The plan is ambitious. According to official statistics, a seventh of
India’s urban population live in shantytowns. In cities such as Mumbai
the proportion is much higher.
The country’s slums — the result of huge influxes from
poverty-stricken rural areas into the cities — have seen anarchic and
unplanned growth. Using detailed images shot from satellites, the
government aims to establish once and for all where India’s slums are
and how many people live in them.
The plan is the brainchild of Kumari Selja, India’s housing minister,
and will use technology developed by the Indian Space Research
Organisation. “Most of the time the plans are based on projections
rather than hard data,” she told reporters last week. “We plan to
map the whole country so that we know about the slums in each city.” A
key aim, according to the minister, would be to map the “non-notified”
or unofficial slums.
However, Ramendra Kumar of the Delhi Sramek Segathan organisation, which
works with slum dwellers across India, said that the survey could serve
only two purposes: to benefit the property developers by showing where
potentially vacant land was or to show “where slums are illegal and
justify the forced relocation of inhabitants”.
Such expulsions have been going on for many years — the giant Dharavi
slum in Mumbai, made famous by the Oscar winning film Slumdog
Millionaire, has been the subject of successive bids to relocate some or
all of its estimated 800,000 inhabitants — which have accelerated in
recent weeks with the approach of the Commonwealth Games to be held in
India in October.
In a bid to clean up Delhi local authorities have intensified a
programme of razing slums in the centre of the city or clearing them
from roadsides on key routes.
The Hanuman Masdoor slum, built like an estimated two-thirds of such
communities on public land, lies alongside the road leading from the
centre of Delhi to the international airport.
Last month bulldozers arrived with no warning to demolish a 5m wide
strip of houses along one side to clear space for advertising hoardings
that will hide the ragged shantytown from passing traffic.
Ka Tanana Nair, who chairs the community council, said that she had been
assured by municipal engineers that the slum was not scheduled for
demolition. She remained unconvinced however. “I have been here 20
years. Once we had nothing. No water, no electricity, just wooden
shelters. Now we have all that and solid homes too,” she said.
(By
Jason Burke, The Guardian, London Daily Dawn, 24/02/2010)
Gutter
Baghicha case: Arrest warrants against three suspects issued
A
special anti-corruption court on Tuesday issued non-bailable warrants
for the arrest of three suspects in a land scam case.
The three accused – former assistant director (land) of the defunct
Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) Aftab Ahmed Khan, ex-chief promoter
KMC officer’s cooperative housing society Abdul Hafeez and former
section officer Sindh local bodies Mohammad Siddiq Dar – have been
charged with unlawfully allotting an amenity, better known as KMC Gutter
Bahgchia, measuring 200 acres to the KMC officers’ cooperative housing
society in 1993.
Judge Rashida Asad directed the investigation officer of the case to
arrest the suspects and produce them in court on March 3. The then
commissioner of KMC Allahuddin Sabir and Syed Tanveer Abbas Naqvi, the
then senior director land and estate KMC, are also nominated in the
case. However, Mr Naqvi died and proceedings against him were abated on
March 11, 2008 while Mr Allahuddin was on bail.
A case (FIR 56/2001) was registered at the anti-corruption
establishment, Karachi, under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by
public servant or by banker, merchant), 468 (forgery for purpose of
cheating) and 477(fraudulent cancellation, destruction, etc., of will,
authority to adopt or valuable security) and 34 (common intention) of
the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 5 (2) of the Anti-corruption
Act, 1947.
(Daily
Dawn, 24/02/2010)
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