Mapping cities
A LOT of impressive and expensive infrastructure has been developed for Karachi over the last two decades. However, much of it has wiped out the history, green areas and built heritage of the city. It has destroyed archaeological sites, settlements that are centuries old, religious and educational institutions, people’s homes, and deprived a large number of young people of their education and jobs.
Murli Hills, opposite the University of Karachi, contains many layers of civilisation, going back to Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Indus Valley civilisations. They are now buried under Gulistan-i-Jauhar developments.
Bahria Town has swallowed up Buddhist remains and wiped out the intangible culture of the region, along with agricultural land that every Karachi development plan had recommended be preserved. Natural drainage systems of Karachi have also been occupied, adding to the flooding of the city. These areas are now available for real estate development.
Cities that do not have a history invent one. We, on the other hand, wipe out what we do have. The same applies to the case of the Malir Expressway, which is under construction and whose right of way, according to archaeologists, contains important sites.
The government claims that the design of the expressway has been altered so that not a single building will be demolished and neither will any institutional building be affected. However, the community organisations and NGOs residing and working in the area claim that due to the building of the expressway, a large number of institutional buildings and entire settlements will be demolished.
The necessity for building infrastructure should be identified.
Judging from previous examples, we have every reason to believe that the community and NGO estimates are correct, and those of the government have not been properly calculated. A number of old settlements are also to be demolished, along with an important library.
A Baloch intellectual, Prof Ghulam Hussain, donated a guava garden on which intellectual and literary conversations used to be held. The people of this area nurtured this process. Later, Prof Ghulam Hussain turned this space into a library which is used by academics, journalists and students, and people of the area. The library was named after Syed Hashmi, a much-respected local teacher. Even if the library is not demolished, it will be almost impossible to use, since it is located on a traffic interchange. It contains over 25,000 books, many of them in the Balochi language. This will be a great loss not only for the area but also for the Balochi-speaking population of Sindh.
Eventually, developers will turn the library and the land around it into high-density concrete housing creating a heat island effect and destroying the area’s rich biodiversity, which has been documented beautifully by the young people of the area.
There are serious irregularities related to the approval of the Malir Expressway by the government. For infrastructure of this category an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is required before the construction of the infrastructure is undertaken. However, the design and construction of the expressway began before an EIA was undertaken and public hearings were held. Also, the question whether this expressway is actually required — given the existing road network — was also not taken into consideration.
Keeping the above issues in mind, certain considerations emerge; primarily, that before any infrastructure development programme is envisaged, a mapping of existing infrastructure in the project area, along with the number of houses and households, should be undertaken. Educational, medical and cultural assets must be identified, along with environmental assets such as flora and fauna and their location.
And most important, the necessity for the infrastructure to be built should be identified. In the case of the Malir Expressway, the question that arises is: was this expressway required, or could the existing infrastructure be developed to fulfil the purpose for which the expressway is being built? To the best of public knowledge, this was not done and if it was, it was not made public before the decision to build the expressway was taken.
It is well understood that given the problems faced by government institutions, they may not be able to carry out such an exercise effectively. So the involvement of architecture and development studies departments of universities is essential. They could carry out such mapping as part of their academic programmes. This would not only help projects, but would also create maps and literature to understand the city better. It would also make them better citizens of a city who no one really cares for, except a few romantics.
The writer is an architect.
Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2024