· Campaign against forced evictions has forced the city government to stop demolition of in various settlements in the city.

 

 

· URC in collaboration of OPP-RTI has initiated a ‘‘Secure housing initiative Program”. Under this program a details documentation of communities, which are facing eviction threats will be prepared. This will help the communities to lobby against evictions.

 

· Three forums on the issues such as housing crisis, land titles and water & sewerage were held.

 

· URC and OPP-RTI has jointly initiated a research on water supply system of the city.

 

· Punjab Urban Resource Center (PURC) is gradually establishing an information database for Lahore city.

 

· Second electronic database volumes of all major news items and articles on urban issues were compiled for the period January – December 2006. News sorting for the period Jan – June 2007 is also completed.

 

 

 

 

 

1.0 Acting as a Watchdog on Major Urban Issues

URC plays the role of a `watchdog' group in the city's planning and development scenes. In this respect, it has worked on a number of issues. Currently it is involved with the following:

Karachi Master Plan 2020

Water and Sanitation

Transport and Traffic Management in Karachi

Lyari Expressway Projects

Solid Waste Management in Karachi

Revitalization of the Saddar area (Old city’s cultural centre)

 

 

The details of some current involvements are explained on the following pages:

The Karachi city government is preparing Master Plan 2020 for Karachi city.

URC members attended review meetings of proposed Karachi Master Plan (KMP) 2020. The review of the KMP showed that the various components of the plan do not relate to each other. There was no link between land use, transport and infrastructure development plans. The data and projections of the plan were also questionable.

Over 50 per cent of the city’s population lived in Katachi Abadis (Informal poor settlements) and the plan did not deal with their problems.

The city government is unable to finalize the master plan due to objections and concerns raised by the city planners and experts.

A number of NGOs and CBOs (including URC, OPP-RTI, PILER, CREED and many CBOs) have been collaborating on water and sewerage issue and have merged themselves into a Water and Sanitation Network for Karachi (WSNK).

The WSNK has initially been focusing on:

· Privatization of water and sewerage services in Karachi

· Foreign funded projects of water and sewerage for Karachi

The network has developed a viable low cost alternative sewerage plan for the city. This alternative is now accepted and being implemented through the city government’s finances on incremental basis. The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) the official agency, which looks after dinking water supply and disposal of wastewater, now officially recognizes the WSNK and accepted its proposals as an official guideline for development of the services.

On the basis of this successful experience of inserting sewerage proposals in government plans now the network has also decided to prepare a conceptual plan for water supply system of the city.

Recently a study on existing water supply situation has been underway by the URC and OPP jointly. The study identifies the major issues of water supply and distribution. The information for this study is collected through following sources:

a. Government

b. People (poor and middle income groups) and

c. Alternative source of water supply such as tanker etc.

 

The initial finding of the study showed the poor communities are the worst victims of present water situation in the city. The main reason for this is not water shortage but mismanagement and equal distribution of the supply. The details of the study will be available shortly in a report form.

Soon a series of the forums will be conducted to discuss the findings of this study as well as proposals and future course of actions.

URC has been focusing on the issue of transport and traffic management in Karachi. In this regard URC has conducted various studies to identify the problems within the existing system.

Instead of introducing a viable and affordable transport system for majority of people and poor communities the government is continuously investing huge sums on construction of flyovers, underpasses and expressways. As a result the city streets are flooded with cars and traffic congestions has become a daily routine matter.

The bureaucrats in Islamabad and the politicians in Karachi who want to implement grand schemes that are not economically feasible and socially appropriate. In a recent move the bureaucrats in Islamabad are pushing an elevated light rail system on M A Jinnah Road, a proposal rejected many times in the past.

URC will continue to lobby for a public transport system, which will facilitate and benefit the majority particularly the urban poor.

Since 1992, the Urban Resource Centre (URC) has been involved in studying the solid waste problems of Karachi. URC has also developed a detailed proposal for Karachi’s waste management system. This proposal provides a greater understanding of operations regarding the informal waste picking and recycling and suggests the up-gradation of the informal system. The various studies showed that over 40,000 poor families are involved in informal waste picking and recycling business.

Under ADB’s mega city the city government is recently developing new proposals for the solid waste management. URC held several meetings with the ADB’s consultants. All available information and study reports at URC were handed over to the ADB’s consultants. URC’s basic focus for any new development is:

a. make sure the new proposal will properly recognize and understand the value of informal waste recycling sector,

b. No displacement of both livelihoods and housing of the poor informal waste pickers and recycling units will take place and,

c. The right of housing and livelihoods of poor communities must be ensured in any kind of resettlement.

 

The planners of the waste sector in the city government and URC have now almost identical views on informal waste recycling. A reflection of this can be observed in the new proposed projects of waste management system of the city.

URC will continue to monitor new developments on waste management sector of the city.

The work on Lyari expressway was started on 21^{st January 2002. The government claimed to complete it within 30 months (by end of July 2004). A recent survey showed that so far only 60 percent (by end June 2007) has been completed.}

The recent surveys showed that the city government has demolished 12,825 housing units to make way for this controversial project. Besides those 3470 commercial units (including shops, factories etc) were also bulldozed. No compensation or alternatives land were given to the commercial units. The expressway project will displace a population 225,000 at the completion.

The resettlement process lacks transparency and community participation, besides creating numerous hardships for affected communities.

The displaced and under threat communities regularly take out protest rallies against this project. Many such demonstrations were held in front of city government offices and at Karachi Press Club in recent months.

URC regularly circulated all information of these on forced evictions to the concerned organizations and media, which resulted publication of a number of news articles in different newspapers. These forced evictions have also widely covered by various TV channels and newspapers.

All videos, books and documents on Lyari expressway are available at URC on request.

URC has been monitoring evictions in the city since 1992. The reported figures show that more than 23,975 houses (excluding houses and shops demolished in the Lyari riverbed due to the Lyari Expressway Project) have been bulldozed by various government agencies since 1992. As a result of these evictions 188,201 people have been displaced, including women, children and elderly. No compensations or alternatives were awarded to the victims of these demolitions.

During first of half of this year (July – December 2006) the government bulldozed over 400 houses in the various parts of the city. A total of 2,400 people were made homeless as result of these evictions.

In last six months (January – June 2007) no new case of eviction has been reported.

The recent trends showed that the evictions have become an increasing threat to the poor communities across the city.

There are three major reasons

a. Mega projects and infrastructure development works

b. Increasing land values

c. Government feels these settlements are ugly spots on the face of city

 

In February 2006 city nazim (Mayor) announced removal of all settlements, which were established after 23rd March 1985. This action faced a lot of resistance from communities as well as opposition political parties. This forced the government to stop demolition of the settlements. URC supported the resistance movement against evictions with information and documentation.

In all the cases where evictions have taken place or where settlements are under threat, it has been observed that people need documentation of their settlements i.e case studies that can be used as evidence for dialogue/ negotiations. This can strengthen people’s resistance. Take the example of the case of the Katchi Abadis (informal settlements) along the Karachi Circular Railway tracks, where the ground situation was documented by URC. The information, printed as maps and photographs, was used as evidence by the peoples alliance stopping evictions.

OPP-RTI, as part of its sanitation program has mapped and documented about 416 Katchi Abadis i.e. 77% of the total Katchi Abadis in Karachi. Documentation is of the existing sanitation, water supply systems, schools, clinics and block maker’s yards. There is an assessment of peoples/govt.’s work and the investments, which shows immense community work. This information, used as evidence for advocacy, has been an important tool facilitating the adoption by the government of the realistic sewage disposal plan for the city. Need has therefore, been felt to add to the documentation on Katchi Abadis the information on the status of land, housing, its value and investments i.e additional information about the settlements that can assist people in resisting evictions and negotiating tenure.

OPP-RTI and URC are together in contact with community activists in these settlements who are a resource for information. Case studies of the settlements are being jointly prepared. The process would include the following:

· Documentation of the settlements – a continuous activity

· Publication of case studies of individual settlements

· The case studies to be used as evidence to:

- Strengthen peoples efforts at secure housing

- Informing media, professionals, govt. agencies, NGOs and CBOs so as to bring forth the reality.

· In the process enabling community members to come together in forums, moving towards efforts at speeding up the provision of land title

· The above are efforts to influence Government policy so as to enable the poor in securing their housing.

· Making efforts to change cut date up to June 2007 for regularization (awarding land titles) from 23rd March 1985.

 

 

Now URC in collaboration of OPP is exploring the ways to strengthen communities’ effort to secure their houses from bulldozing. During last six months a number of meetings were held with community activists in the various settlements. Furthermore a series of workshops are being planned to discuss evictions threats as well as larger housing/land title issues of the poor. In a first step only community activists will be invited in these workshops to develop a strategy on this issue.

URC has also been documenting incidents of fire in Katchi Abadis (informal and low income settlements) of Karachi since 1995. Since January ’97, a total number of 1,806 huts were gutted in different settlements. These incidents have rendered more than 12,204 people homeless. 19 minor children, four young girls, two women and four men were also burnt alive in these incidents, besides a number of severe physical injuries.

Recent incidents:

· On 1st February 2007 as many as 17 huts out 50 gutted by fire near Aziz Bhatti Park Gulsh-e-Iqbal

· On 24th March 2007, at least five huts were burnt near Al-Asif Square Sohrab Goth. Two fire tenders moved to the scene and extinguished the fire but only after five huts were gutted.

· On 10th April 2007 a fire erupted in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town when a kerosene stove burst in a hut, reducing at least seven huts to ashes. The fire broke out at around 3.35 p.m. in the hutment mostly occupied by beggars, just opposite the Urdu Science College within Aziz Bhatti police limits.

 

Two main causes are identified for these incidents; one natural and the other planned. The planned incidents are those, in which the land mafia is involved. To draw attention towards fire incidents in Karachi, URC circulates reports containing facts and figures on the issue to the press, NGOs and government agencies.

To encourage interaction between different development sectors of the city, regular forums are held at URC, where various groups come in contact with each other. This promotes collective thinking, decision-making and actions on major urban issues. URC documents the proceedings of these forums regularly.

During the current reporting period, the following forums were held:

This forum was held 22nd January 2007 at URC office. Fr. Jorge Anzorena made a detail presentation on the housing and unemployment subject. He cited case studies of India and Argentina.

Fr. Jorge said that he hadn’t come with any specific solutions for Karachi though, but he wanted to share the possible ways in which the problems of housing are resolved in other countries.

He gave his presentations on resettlement of squatters in Mumbai as well as on how people solved their unemployment problems in Argentina when they had to face the crisis. He revealed how thousands of families in Mumbai, who lived next to the railway tracks and drains, were resettled by their government, in order to broader the roads and build more tracks to meet the requirement of the increasing number of travelers.

Previously, the government decided to evict the families without any compensation or resettlement but the squatters didn’t allow them to do so. “They strongly protested against the decision, sat on the railway lines and showed their disapproval that later on forced the government to find the other way out,” he revealed. The government initiated a dialogue with Slum Dweller Federation to resolve the issue of the resettlement. Finally they develop a contract with the local contractors to build free housing for squatters on Transfer Development Rights (TDR) against more expensive land in other parts of the city. In this way, the contractors could invest in the offered land and earn profit out of them. Eighteen thousand families were reallocated in just 4, 5 months.

The contractors built 8,000 units and each family received a house of 225 sq.ft and 80-90 families were accommodated in each building. “Housing was provided free of cost, but the maintenance and repair work was their own responsibility. So an alliance comprised of thousands of women called Mahila Milan (A local NGO) carried out a survey on the Katchi Abadis and motivated the women to save money. Another positive thing that happened was that the contractors trained many of the squatters who then worked as sub-contractors. The contractors just made the main structure, whereas those squatters who worked as sub-contractors did all the minor work.

Unemployment also decreased in this way, providing the poor squatters training and then employment. Later on, the trained squatters were also made to build public toilets in Katchi Abadis. The NGOs associated with Katchi Abadis helped in the process of relocation of thousands of families. First of all, those NGOs carried out survey, collected data and forwarded that to the government on which the government allocated houses to the poor squatters. Each family was given its identity card afterwards. The families - especially houses wives - were motivated towards saving as the maintenance had to be done on their own.

To check the correct utilization of the houses, each building was then provided with a cooperative who was supposed to keep check over all the aspects including the maintenance of electricity and water. Representatives of NGOs, community activists, journalists, government officials and students attended the forum. The participants also discuss the issue of housing and employment in their own context.

3.2 Forum on Karachi water and sewerage plans 

He also announced under the new policy the KWSB will provide water connection to the poor communities and Katchi Abadis at a 50 percent reduced charges.

He said that the mentioning of water policy for the city does not exist at all. According to him the recently formed reforms committee would bring about institutional and structural changes aimed at turning the water utility into a service-oriented organization.

He hoped the committee would help water board overcome a number of problems, including the poor ratio of skilled and technical manpower, lack of governance strategy, ineffective and non-coherent rules and regulations within the organization, lack of assets management and maintenance policy, unrealistic tariff structure and poor financial management. He said the committee’s proposals would be presented before political leadership, civil society, NGOs and section of consumers before giving them a final shape.

About the structural reforms already made in the KWSB, he said the concept of areas-based management system was translated by dividing the city in hydraulically independent zones and making the town management more effective. He said the board was working in close liaison with the town nazims (Mayors). Besides, he termed the new policy of monthly bills a success.

All nine hydrants under the control of rangers will soon be closed down and new hydrants being set up in all 18 towns of the city will start functioning. He was giving the details of KWSB operations Haider said that town-specific hydrants were being set up, and it would be mandatory for tankers to be registered with the hydrant of one town only. These tankers would then supply water. only to the residents of that town.

According to Mr. Khaliq government is unable to provide shelter to poor families therefore housing crisis is growing day by day. Mostly people get land in Katchi Abadis (informal Settlements) illegally and construct their houses there. The main objective of SKAA is to provide lease (land titles) and carry out infrastructure development work in these settlements.

According to him in 1987 the Katchi Abadi Act 1987, a land regularization policy and upgrading came into effect. He said that the regularization and development of katchi abadis has been given high priority. Under the policy katchi abadis existing up to 23rd March 1985 and comprising at least 40 houses were to be identified for regularization. The settlement has to fulfill the following criteria.

a. The land belonging to provincial/local agencies shall exclude the area reserved for amenities such as roads, water supply, sewerage, dispensary etc and also the area under the flood zones

b. If federal government or private owner owns land a no-objection certificate (NOC) will be required from the concerned authority.

Under this act the Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority (SKAA) was established. Besides regularization and development of informal settlements the functions of the SKAA (authority work under provincial government) also include, where necessary, low cost housing and redevelopment schemes of shiftees from katchi abadi and areas which are not regularizable as katchi abadi will be undertaken.

In Karachi 539 katchi abadis were identified for regularization and development having a population of 2.67 million and 0.42 million housing units. These katchi abadis cover an area of 15,572 acres in various parts of the city. Out 539 katchi abadis 191 were notified by Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority (SKAA) and other remained under the jurisdiction of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (which is now called City District Government Karachi).

On a question by the community activists he said the SKAA would not provide land titles to those settlements, which were established after 23rd March 1985. For this purpose there is need to change the existing law.

During the discussions the community activists from various settlements stressed the need of speeding up regularization process in the city. The community activists also opposed the SKAA’s new proposal resettle existing settlements in apartments blocks.

The program provides an opportunity to fresh graduates from universities and low-income settlements to involve themselves in the activities of URC and develop their orientation towards the changing realities of the urban context. To provide an incentive to the youth, more informal techniques are adopted during the training, which are based on field visits and self-learning. The URC staff supervises and guides their activities.

Four students from Social Sciences Department of Karachi University have completed their one-year internship at URC. These students were involved to collect interviews of the various evicted communities in the city. They also prepared case studies of Lyari expressway resettlement project.

A group 14 students, from Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture were associated with the Youth Program in November and December 2006. Detail presentations were arranged for the students to understand URC’s work and city’s development trends. After orientation they selected Clifton beach and Hasan Aulia Village (An under threat settlement of Lyari Expressway) as their case studies. These case studies were latter on presented at Indus Valley School.

A group of 40 students from various departments of Karachi University (including political studies, journalism, Pakistan studies, mass communication, internal affairs, social studies and others) visited URC on 7th September 2006 for an orientation meeting.

Another group of 10 youth from OPP-RTI’s Youth Training Program visited URC on 14th November 2006 for orientation meeting. After initial orientation the students were assigned to prepare case studies on Lyari expressway, Clifton beach, evictions and transport issues of the city.

URC is supporting Punjab Urban Resource Centre (PURC) to replicate the URC Karachi model in Lahore city.

PURC’s work focuses on three main areas

i. Privatisation of Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA)

ii. Transport and traffic management of Lahore city.

iii. Documentation of forced evictions

 

PURC’s work is gradually falling into four clear areas: a) Information Collection on Urban Issues, b) Research on Focus Areas, c) Advocacy & Dissemination of Information, d) Networking and Liaison.

PURC hold regular discussion forums on issues such as evictions water supply, transport and public spaces.

(A detail activity report for the period Jan – June 2007 of PURC is available on request.)

A number of other small organizations have been identified in Sindh and Punjab as potential groups for URC replications in major cities of Pakistan.

NGOs and CBOs from different parts of the city are in regular contact with URC. Information is shared with them on a number of issues that are relevant to the problems they have identified themselves. URC also inter-links community based organizations with other NGOs, Government, Media and academic working in the same field.

The Defense Housing Authority (DHA) has made to sell out land along Clifton Beach for major commercial developments. A number of civil society organizations feel these new commercial development would restrict common people from beach area.

During current reporting period URC made a presentation of the DHA Beach Project to a group of prominent Karachiites some of whom have been active for years in human rights movements and constitutional issues. They included ex-judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, members of the Institute of Architects Pakistan (IAP) and of the Pakistan Medical Association. They issued a statement in the press expressing their concerns regarding the project after which 32 prominent professionals, cooperative sector executives, media persons, fashion designers, lawyers and businessmen issued a similar statement. The two groups have been brought together to form the Citizen's Coalition. The Coalition has held protest marches on the Beach and carried out a media campaign. They wanted to bring out a one-page ad against the project but newspapers are not willing to bring out an ad against a project of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA). Now we have learnt that the DHA is revising the plan to accommodate some of the concerns of the citizens. A dialogue between the IAP and the Indus Valley School of Architecture (representing the concerns of the coalition) and the DHA is in the offing.

The 16th meeting of the CDN was held on 28th and 29th March 2007 in Soon Valley, District Khushab Punjab. The Soon Valley Development Program (SVDP) hosted the meeting.

This is a national network of OPP and URC partner organizations. The CDN meetings provide an opportunity to members to understand each other’s work and to observe partners work on site, as the venue of the meeting is rotated among partners. Members discuss various development issues and trends.

Partners from various organizations presented new developments in their work, expansion of work, link up with government programs.

The Soon Valley Development Program (SVDP) hosted the meeting shared its work though a presentation and field visits.

URC is also a part of an NGO Network called (JAC), which is working on gender issues in Pakistan. This network holds regular seminars, workshops, public demos and interactions on gender issues.

The All Pakistan Katchi Abadis Alliance is a national wide alliance of Katchi Abadis (informal Settlements) actively working against evictions and legal tenure of the Katchi Abadis. The Alliance holds regular meetings in various settlements. URC collaborates with Alliance on evictions and housing rights issues. The alliance is now working with the Network of Railway Colonies in Karachi. Most of the railway colonies are under threat of evictions as Pakistan Railways (PR) is currently planning to sell its land for commercial developments.

In partnership with Orangi Pilot Project - Research & Training Institute (OPP-RTI), a city development forum has been organized for the CBO’s in Karachi. These are CBO’s with whom URC and OPP-RTI have worked. Need has been felt for a larger understanding among groups, to enable work on larger city issues. The series of forums aims to facilitate an understanding of the city, thereby strengthening the process of citizens’ roles in city development.

A total of 110 CBOs/NGOs in various settlements in Karachi were visited. This program was initiated by OPP-RTI and Urban Resource Centre (URC) has joined it.

A series of presentations are being held at URC, so far 32 CBOs have presented their work.

During current period the following new CBOs made their presentations:

a. Health and Education Development Society is working in SITE Town area of Karachi.

b. Bilawal Jhokho Goth Welfare Association is working to resolve land titles, water, sewerage and electricity problems of their settlement.

 

The presentation was followed by a discussion on the work of CBOs in the city. The community activists suggested a wider link up or network is becoming more essential.

More CBOs will present their work at URC. The presentation gives an opportunity to the CBOs to develop presentation skills and through focused discussions develop an understanding of the relationship of their work to the wider issues of the city.

The case studies of these CBOs are being prepared for publication.

During the current reporting period URC and its partners NGOs/CBOs are conducting a study on water supply system of the city. The report of the findings of the study will soon be available at URC.

URC also regularly information updates on the following areas;

Evictions in Karachi

Karachi’s Sewerage disposal Issues

Solid Waste Management

Lyari Expressway

 

Besides its own publications URC circulates its research reports to the media and relevant organizations. URC’s members often present the outcome of the studies at various forums

During Current period the case studies of the following community organizations (CBOs) were printed:

i. Women Welfare and Development Association

ii. Madadghar Welfare Association

iii. Basira Welfare Trust

 

Since January 2007, URC has published 6 issues of the 15th volume of monthly Facts & Figures. URC has been publishing "Facts & Figures" in Urdu and English since January 1993. It is a monthly 'news sheet', containing information on major urban issues, i.e. housing, health, environment, education, urban services, economy and transport. This information is collected through news clippings, reports issued by government agencies and NGOs, and studies conducted by URC.

All issues of the Facts & Figures are now available at the URC web site.

Video is a powerful medium for communication for documenting projects and processes.

URC has been collecting video archival video footages on various urban issues such as recycling of solid waste disposal, old city historic neighborhood, citywide sewerage disposal, water supply, transport and evictions. All of which will be useful both as records of what is happening now and for taking future video films.

URC staff URC will continue this activity and would like to stream line it.

Major articles under each heading have been compiled into dossiers (sorted and separate heading-wise) and updated up to December 2006. Besides this, news cutting, sorting has been completed up to June 2007. URC has been collecting news clippings and articles and providing facilities for different cross-sections of the society since 1991: Now over 400 news clippings and article files with spiral binding are available at URC for reference and sale. Mainly researchers, students, journalists, academicians, institutions and libraries purchase these clipping files.

Since January 2006 URC has taken initiative to compile these news clippings in electronic form. The news clippings from Daily Dawn, The News and Daily Times are being down loaded from inter net editions. Two volumes of electronic database of all major news items and articles on urban issues of Karachi were compiled for the period January – December 2006. The downloading for third volumes (Jan – June 2007) has been completed and news items are in sorting process for compilations.

A list of all documentation is available on the URC web site.

The URC library has more than 5000 books, research papers, magazines and newsletters on urban issues, in general, and on Karachi in particular.

Cataloguing of the URC library has been completed and an updated version is now available. An average of 90 visitors use the library every month including researchers, students, and journalists, community activists and training groups.

URC has developed its web site to extend the outreach of its information dissemination. The web address is ^{www.urckarachi.org. The web site is being updated on a regular basis.}

Groups from CBOs, NGOs, government, press and other agencies frequently visit URC. They spend time at URC to understand urban issues and working of the centre. See list below:

A group of 34 participants from Cambodia, Nepal and Mongolia had a three-days exposure visit to Karachi. The exposure visit sponsored by UNSCAPE and ACHR. This was jointly hosted by URC and OPP.