By IPS Correspondents
KARACHI, Aug 26 2005 (IPS)

-Mohammad Shamsuddin, still grimaces when he recalls the &#39&#39swarming flies and mosquitoes, over-flowing soak-pits, bucket latrines and the sludge and the sewage&#39&#39 as also the quarrels in Orangi as to whose rubbish and waste was causing the foul smell.

He also remembers the time when life began to take a turn for the better, when the primitive sanitation system was replaced by a fully functioning one, that too, at a price affordable for all. But like so many others living in his lane he proudly claims to have literally lend a hand building the drains and the sewers.

Orangi, one of the biggest of Karachi&#39s 539 squatter settlements-built through the illegal occupation and subdivision of state land-was once a stinking township with a primitive, almost non-existent sanitation system.

Substandard housing, open sewers and alleys filled with garbage and human ordure, Orangi was once considered an eyesore by officials. Today, almost 25 years later, they show-case it as a success story to local and foreign urban planners, donor agencies, non-government organisations (NGOs) working in water supply and sanitation, and even anthropologists.

The transformation of Orangi can be attributed to a vibrant, three-way partnership among community, civil society and state, based on the philosophy of the late Akhtar Hameed Khan, the founder of the Orangi Pilot Project and training Instiute (OPP-RTI).

Back in 1980, Dr Khan set up the Orangi Pilot Project Research and Training Institute (OPP-RTI), as an NGO to help mobilise and organise &#39katchi abadis&#39 or low-income settlements and enable them to find their own alternatives in accessing municipal services, housing, health care, education and employment.

Arif Hasan, a renowned urban planner and architect, says: &#39&#39Such cost- effective initiatives to improve and extend provisions for services to low-income urban households have considerable relevance for meeting the health, education, women&#39s empowerment and environmental targets within the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and OPP-RTI is a precious example of this&#39&#39.

According to a survey conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF) last year, Pakistan is well on track to achieving assigned targets by the MDGs evolved during a UN summit in 2000.

Under the MDGs world communities must reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation 2015, with 1990 taken as the base year when some 23 per cent of the world&#39s population of 5.3 billion people lacked access to safe drinking water sources and 51 per cent did not have access to improved sanitation facilities.

Pakistan&#39s coverage of drinking water was far better than its rate of improvement in sanitation facilities although the Orangi example stands out like beacon.

&#39&#39It clearly shows how to reach even the poorest households in the urban areas. Also, that it costs far less than what it would cost the government or private contractors,&#39&#39 Hasan said, adding that, ideally, an equal partnership has to be maintained between community and government.

Explaining the low-cost sanitation programme, Perween Rehman, director of OPP-RTI director, said that they started by advocating for the development of an underground sewerage system, one lane at a time, without a master plan, on the one hand, and convincing the local government to &#39&#39build and improve on existing external drainage system of the rest of Karachi which would cost less than starting a new system&#39&#39.

And that is where they sought support from people like Shamsuddin, a community activist. &#39&#39We were requested to form tanzeems (organised groups). I remember we&#39d hold countless meetings that would continue well into late evenings. Each lane consisting of 20-30 houses was made the unit of organisation,&#39&#39 recalls Shamsuddin as he rolls out the dog- eared and yellowed survey maps of his area.

&#39&#39It was not easy convincing people that they would have to take it upon themselves to set up a sanitation system, and pay for it too, as the local government may take forever to do so if we waited&#39&#39. People had to be told that poor sanitation is the root cause of health problems and that in turn was a major cause or contributor to their poverty.

Once the mind-sets changed, working with the community became easy.

Each lane was asked to nominate a lane manager who applies to the OPP- RTI for technical assistance and managerial guidance. The latter would survey the lane, prepare a sanitation-engineering plan and estimates and hand the data to the lane manager. The manager would then collect the money and begin work.

It costs a household, on an average, 16 US dollars to contribute towards the underground sewerage line and a sanitary latrine. This development is called &#39internal&#39 development by Rehman who says similar improvements done by the city government would cost five times more.

To date, Orangi residents have installed sewers in 5,394 lanes, serving 80,910 of the 94,122 houses.

The ‘external&#39 development, consisted of trunk sewers, treatment plants and long secondary sewers that cannot be done by the community. That, she said, remains the task of the state.

Years of tireless work has now been compiled in a thick, priced publication, full of survey maps, painstakingly marking each and every drain of the area surveyed so far. Last year, the Works and Services department of the city government requested OPP-RTI to assist it in the development of natural drainage channels-around 40-all over Karachi.

And they have already completed survey maps of 21 main drains.They have also documented 332 of the 539 katchi abadis in Karachi along with physical and economic proposals for upgrading the nallas (natural drains) of Karachi through which most of city&#39s sewage flows.

&#39&#39Our basic focus still remains benefit to the poor, whether we work in katchi abadis or elsewhere in the city,&#39&#39 adds Rehman.

&#39&#39They are very rich in their data bank when it comes to sewerage, drainage and sanitation issues,&#39&#39 says Shoaib Siddiqui, former executive district officer in the city government, in charge of the 500 million U.S. dollar mega project called &#39Tameer-e-Karachi Programme, 2003-04&#39.

&#39&#39They had to spread to the city as the katchi abadis&#39 sewage disposal system was linked to the rest of Karachi,&#39&#39 said Siddiqui.

&#39&#39I&#39d call it a success story,&#39&#39 says Nasir Abbas, Director General of Sindh Katchi Abadis&#39 Authority, echoing Siddiqui&#39s sentiments. &#39&#39The idea has spread because it is so economically sound. Being an incremental project, they started from a micro level and grew to encompass the macro level, it was a slow process&#39&#39.

But there are urban planners who are a little wary of OPP-RTI&#39s expertise in design. &#39&#39OPP presently does not possess such capacity. The government, I think, has both the experts and the experience for managing projects. For implementation, there are some very good local engineering firms that can help out,&#39&#39 says Farhan Anwar, an urban planner.

Even Shoaib Bokhari, Provincial Minister for Planning and Development ( Sindh), is not too convinced. &#39&#39I believe in OPP&#39s sincerity, but I don&#39t believe they have the expertise or the capacity to do everything&#39&#39.

Nonetheless, there must be something outstanding about this model for why else would it be replicated outside Karachi in 13 other cities and towns.

Even the World Bank has accepted the model for replication in 100 villages in the Punjab province. The OPP-RTI model has also influenced programmes in South Africa, Central Asia, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

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