Karachi BRT, a blessing or mystery?

This article will particularly highlight the issue of absence of Mass Transit System in the city of Karachi. Launching of Karachi BRT is the most awaited news and people are waiting to hear that news since last 4 years, read the full article to know about the insight and depth of the issue

This article will particularly highlight the issue of absence of Mass Transit System in the city of Karachi. Launching of Karachi BRT is the most awaited news and people are waiting to hear that news since last 4 years, read the full article to know about the insight and depth of the issue.

Karachi is having the population of around 15 million, and right now the 7th largest city of the world in terms of population according to United Nations 2018 estimates. And you will get amazed to know a very unique thing about this city that, “It does not have any government operated public transport system”. The people used to travel through their Motorcycles and Cars, and people travels to around 10-12 kilometres daily through their privately managed vehicles to get to their workplaces. People used to spend a quarter of their income to meet their transportation expenses.

Also read: Karachi is drowning miserably

Mass transit systems in cities of other countries scaling similar to Karachi

Other cities of such a huge scale like Karachi in terms of both area and population usually establishes and manages mass transit systems. Our neighboring country India is having its largest city in this list called Mumbai and Mumbai is having best Mass transit system in India, called Mumbai Suburban Railway, more than 53% of Mumbai’s overall population uses MSR.

Our another neighbor and our best friend China is having its city Shanghai in that top 10 list of largest cities, it is also having one of the best mass transit systems of all time called Shanghai Metro rapid-transit system. SMRTS is being established with 16 lines now to accommodate most of the passengers, because majority of the population likes to travel through SMRTS.

A failed attempt of running Karachi BRT by Ex-Mayor Mustafa Kamal

During the tenure of General Musharraf’s government when Karachi was being run by the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) under the leadership of Ex-Mayor Mustafa Kamal, at that time people of Karachi were being facilitated by the Green Bus Service. But after a short span of time the service got retarded due to the lack of funds for their maintenance and paying salaries to the staff.

Karachi has become so much isolated since the end of General Musharraf’s reign in terms of attention and focus by both provincial and federal governments. CDGK was being suspended by the provincial government of Sindh with a controversial type of ordinance. The ordinance was passed in the .....................

For the details and insight, read the original article at Make the difference (MTD)

Karachi is drowning miserably

Karachi is the ex-capital of Pakistan and now it is the largest metropolitan of the country as well as the financial hub. It contributes to around 70% of the overall revenue to the national treasury. People from all over the country as well as from different parts of the world used to come over here to initiate their business ideas just because of the welcoming nature of this big-hearted city. But right now Karachi is drowning.

Karachi is drowning miserably

Due to recent storming rainfall in the region, the City of Karachi is drowning into urban flood. This type of extreme rains was recorded around 90 years back in the history of the city. Cars are getting sink into the water flow, poor people are getting displaced from their homes.

This includes areas like Surjani Town, Orangi Town, North Karachi, New Karachi, Korangi, Baldia Town, Malir, Safoorah Goth, Yousuf Goth, Yaroo Goth and the list goes on.

Why Karachi is drowning like this?

In July 2020, a Rapid Need Assessment Urban Flooding report was published by HANDS (Monitoring Evaluation & Research Program) on OCHA United Nations powered ReliefWeb Portal. In that report the preparation and needs which were required to be arranged in pre-flooding situation was clearly mentioned in detail.

Rapid Need Assessment Urban Flooding in Karachi report by OCHA United Nations

The RNA Urban Flooding in Karachi report being published by HANDS on OCHA UN’s portal called ReliefWeb in July stated that..................................

To get further statistics and analysis, go here

Illegal expansion of Industrial zones into designated urban areas

 

Author: Syed Talha Tahir Ali

Introduction:

The objective of this article is to highlight the illegal intervening of industrial zones in the residential areas in the city of Karachi and issues the residents are facing due to this illegal expansion of industrial zone into their designated residential schemes and projects

Targeted Area: New Karachi Industrial Area, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan affecting surrounding residential areas including, New Karachi Township, North Karachi Township, Federal “B” Area, Bufferzone (North Nazimabad Town)

According to the Master Plan of the Karachi City there were specific areas designated for industrial zones, one of those designated industrial zones was “New Karachi Industrial Area (NKIA)” assigned for the industries to get established, these are the coordinates of NKIA 24.9642° N, 67.0844° E, and it is having 4,500 industrial units. Problem started lying when the residential schemes around the area started to get emerged and the population of these residential areas raised as following (as per Pakistan census 2017):

·         Federal B Area 453,490

·         New Karachi Town: 680,000

·         Bufferzone (North Nazimabad):108,000

·         Total Population effected: 12,41,490

Now around 1.24 million people are living around this industrial zone, main problem started to get emerged when NKIA expanded its area illegally means land designated for industrial zone was occupied completely and after occupying the whole designated area they started to establish industrial units in the residential areas as well, some of these industries are lying right adjacent or opposite to the residential units, accident appears in these intervened areas almost every day, due to the low quality and reliability of industrial machinery, equipment, electrical in-house wiring and other utilities of these industrial units, short circuits and other accidents appear results in fire catching accidents frequently.

Health and safety measures in these industrial zones are also showing very miserable condition, following are the immunities immediately lying around and under NKIA

·         Hospitals

·         Mosques

·         Schools & Colleges

·         Universities

·         Community and Party Clubs etc

All of the above public places are exposed to these industrial zone and are highly endangered due to the industrial activities performing in NKIA,

Similarly if we go through the Korangi Industial Area (KIA), you will see quite a different picture, comparatively it is a very large area dedicated and designated for the industrial zone, and satellite map is attached for your reference showing that the KIA is situated with appropriate distance from residential schemes and also not intervening into any existing residential, coordinates of Korangi Industrial Area are 24.8392° N, 67.1209° E. Head Office of provincial environmental protection department namely Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) is also situated in KIA and SEPA has remained quite successful in maintaining the discipline and norms of Environmental Health and Safety Management in KIA particularly.

Now SEPA and other authorities need to look into the NKIA’s matter of illegal expansion seriously, and need to take mitigation and corrective measures immediately to stop the expansion and to remove the industrial units lying closed to the residential units and other immunities as it is vulnerable for the population of these 1.24 million already suffering due to the bad quality manufacturing and production activities of industries lying in NKIA.   

 

 

DHA & Moosa Colony : Well Managed vs Mismanaged

Targeted Area for the study of good solid waste management practices: Defense Housing Authority (DHA) Phase - II, Karachi, and area which has been targeted to highlight for bad solid waste and urban water management practices is Moosa Colony, Federal B Area, Karachi

 

Introduction

This article is focusing on the comparison of solid waste and urban water management practices being conducted in two different areas of comparison, in this study as the case we have opted DHA, Karachi and Moosa Colony, Karachi to compare the Solid Waste and Urban water management practices, in the following text there will be highlighting the good practices and deficiencies of the areas   

 

Good Solid Waste and Urban water Management practices

The area which I have chosen for the study of good management practices is Defense Housing Authority Phase II in Karachi, Pakistan, in this particular area Solid waste management practices are being conducted in a very responsible and systematic manner, over there the Solid Waste collector vehicles deployed by Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) performs the duty of waste collection on regular basis and a proper SOPs are also being shared with the residents of DHA, and they are quite dedicated with their work, their vans are having proper solid waste segregation sections, DHA has become a role model for all the other residential areas of the city. Whereas the Urban Water Management practices in the area are being performed at a quite satisfactory level, sewerage and water supply system in the area has been managed by Karachi Water and Sewerage Board along with Cantonment Board Clifton.

 

Bad Solid Waste and Urban water Management practices

Moosa Colony, Federal B Area is one of the most worsened managed in terms of Solid Waste and Urban Water Management practices, there is no proper solid waste collection setup managed, whereas it has being lying under the public sector departments of Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) and Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KW&SB) respectively, but both the organizations has become completely failed in managing the issues of solid waste and urban water management, because of the non-availability of the waste collection setup, residents of the area has become hopeless and helpless, they miserably throws the garbage of their homes onto the footpath of main road, and in the result of it solid waste comprising plastic bags, food waste & bottles etc get deposited on the footpath which has imposed serious health hazards to the residents living right near to the roads and the shopkeepers running their small businesses. On the other hand KW&SB has become completely failed in providing clean drinking water to the residents of area as well, residents manage to purchase drinking water from the Water Filtration Plants, after all it is very expensive and everyone is not being able to purchase the water from these plants, in result waterborne diseases gets spread among the residents of area

 

Mitigation and Conclusion

As compared to DHA, Moosa colony is showing a very miserable picture in terms of Solid Waste and Urban Water Management, both SSWMB and KW&SB has become completely failed in managing these two concerns of the area’s residents, these two departments should take DHA as the role model and should sit with CBC to setup new action plan to overcome these devastating issues from the area of Moosa Colony, Karachi, otherwise the residents of the area will be paying the price of the mismanagement and non-governance of the authorities