Water

Country Water Action: Pakistan
Orangi Residents Solve Sanitation Woes
October 2007

With a new and efficient sewerage system in place, residents in Karachi’s Orangi slum area no longer endure filthy surroundings. At the forefront of development projects is the Orangi Pilot Project, a civil society organization that initiated sanitation projects in the settlement in the 1980s. What obstacles and successes has it run into over the years?

Contents Sewers in a Mega-Slum Orangi Before Sanitation The Orangi Pilot Project Getting Government Recognition Replicating the Orangi Model

Muhammad Salam, a resident of Ghaziaba locality in the large Orangi informal settlement in Karachi, lets his children play out on the street without the slightest worry. He is happy that he lives on a concrete-paved street, and that beneath his street is a sewerage line that efficiently collects wastewater from all 24 houses in the area.

“I have no worries that my kids will fall in stinking filthy water,” boasted Salam.

Not all the streets in the Orangi “mega-slum,” however, enjoy the same privilege. Streams of reeking water make passing through some streets difficult. And this lack of an adequate municipal sewage system is shared by most of Pakistan’s cities.

With the help of the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP), a civil society organization working in Karachi’s slum dwellings for over two decades, Salam and his street neighbors put their heads together to deal with the most pressing issue facing their community. So they cleaned their street and got for themselves a modern sanitation system of latrines and sewer lines—rare for an urban mega-slum anywhere.

OPP extended help by providing technical assistance, and the project resulted in a cleaner, healthier street, costing only just 600 rupees (US$10) per household.

Noor Mohammad, another resident, said, “The biggest advantage is that we have gotten rid of mosquitoes and the diseases they used to spread.”

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Orangi is considered the largest informal settlement in Asia, and is home to one-tenth of the 12 million residents of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city. It began in the 1960s when throngs of immigrants from India, Bangladesh, and the northern parts of the country started settling in Orangi.

In the 1970s, the settlement expanded rapidly but because it was an unsanctioned dwelling, Orangi did not qualify for official development funds.

Bucket latrines or soak-pits were the major means for disposing of human waste, while wastewater was disposed of via open sewers. Diseases and infections became widespread. A report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) noted that “both health and property of the residents were endangered” without sanitary latrines and underground sewer lines.

Abdul Qadir, an elderly man living in Orangi since 1975, recounts, “I still remember the times when we used to keep our doors closed because of the unbearable smell.”

It was not until social scientist Akhtar Hameed Khan initiated the Orangi Pilot Project in the 1980s that development came to the settlement and started to make life and living easier for Orangi residents. Khan believed that if community initiatives get some support, sustainable development is possible using indigenous resources.

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In the early 1980s, OPP came up with a simple design of steel moulds for latrines and manholes, which reduced construction costs to one quarter of what a private contractor would have charged. People and concerned government agencies pooled their resources together, with the latter contributing box sewers, for instance.

OPP used a unique “component sharing” approach, enabling residents to build latrines in their homes, underground sewerage lines along the lanes, and secondary sewers labeled as “internal development.” The government, meanwhile, is responsible for “external development,” such as the construction of main sewers and treatment plants.

Government and international agencies also sought help from OPP to integrate the model in development schemes sponsored by them. The OPP Research and Training Institute (OPP-RTI) was set up in 1988 to cater to this demand.

After Khan’s death in 1999, a dedicated team of colleagues led by Parween Rahman, the institute director, took over the project and continued to push this novel approach forward up to this day. Rahman believes that the Orangi project’s foremost success lies in “respecting, accepting and supporting community initiatives.” She added, “We have also been able to build a partnership between people and government in the sanitation sector.”

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Getting government support was not easy, however. It was not until 1991 that the Karachi Municipal government recognized the Orangi project’s work and integrated the model in its planning for the area.

Rahman believes that even with the encouraging response from government agencies, public support is essential to the success of such projects. “They [the government agencies] don’t have the draftsmen; they don’t have the necessary maps. Even the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) does not have a level machine,” she pointed out.

“The government alone cannot reach everywhere. Help from community organizations such as OPP is an advantage,” said Nisar Sario, executive district officer for work and services of the Karachi city district government.

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Today, the Orangi model has been replicated in 17 cities and some 50 villages across Pakistan. OPP-RTI research indicates that over 70 percent of lane sewers in Karachi’s slums have been built by the residents themselves.

More than 100,000 families are said to have benefited from the Orangi project in over 7,000 lanes. Community participation is estimated at 102 million Pakistani rupees (US$1.6 million) against 500 million rupees (over US$8 million) from the government. However, considering that the government operates at a higher cost, Parween believes, “people have contributed around 60 percent to these projects.”