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Whose Beach Is It Anyway?
Have you ever been to the Clifton Beach? Have you ever driven on the Sea View road, or walked along the sea on Clifton beach? For the 16 million people this beach provides one of the few places for family entertainment, a place where all citizens can relax, and enjoy the open space and fresh air. It is a place where the rich and the poor alike can go to get away from the worries of their daily lives.
Yet, all this may change soon. According to urban planner Mr Arif Hasan, soon about 82 pr cent of the open sea will become inaccessible to the common man due to all the development that is being carried out in between the sea and the road.
This is due to the Defence Housing Authority, who have plans to allow an overseas developer to utilize 14 Km of beach to make a shopping mall, an entertainment complex including a Cineplex, Ice rink, food court, a 50 storey commercial office tower, hotel and apartments. All this of course will only be of use for those who can afford the high prices, that is, the rich.
Citizen’s groups have been working to address some of the problems with this development. Shyaan Hasnain did some research to find out why these groups are opposed to the development. Here are some of the arguments she found were being put forward by citizen’s groups:
• All the citizens of Karachi, the rich and the poor, own the beachfront, since it is public property. No one should take that away from us. Since the beach is a national resource, it should be free and available to everyone. Nobody should restrict anybody’s entry to it just because someone can’t pay high prices for the services.• Because of cost factors this project will stop 95 per cent of the residents of Karachi using over 30 per cent of the 42-km urban beachfront of their city. If the poor and rich cannot share public space we will divide the city up even more, creating many social problems.
• Beaches are not a luxury. They are public spaces that provide a much needed change for citizens. Public access to beaches is therefore vital for us to enjoy.
• Citizen’s groups claim that this project will add to the existing pollution as well as to the immense sewage and solid waste in the sea. This will destroy any surviving marine micro-organisms and will result in the extinction or mass reduction of fish, turtles, and coastal birds. A violation of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997.• Migratory birds from Africa and Siberia that come to the beach would stay away due to the construction of big buildings.
• The sea shore is the heritage of all Pakistanis, and therefore it must be protected because once it is gone, we will not be able to get it back.
• Article 26 (1) of the constitution of Pakistan states that access to public places and resorts for entertainment is the fundamental right of the citizens and no person, organisation or state could deprive them of utilising it. Citizen’s groups argue that privatizing and handing over of public places to foreign investors was against the constitutional and fundamental rights of the people.• Beaches enjoy a special amenity status and are protected by law. Public access to the beach is protected under the “public trust doctrine”.
• According to the Sindh Building Control Ordinance, beaches reserved for recreational proposes are not meant to be sold for housing schemes.
• Also, citizen’s groups claim that, "It is an international law that any construction and development between roads and beaches is not allowed. The governments of India, Bangkok, Sri Lanka have banned any development and construction along beach sites.”
• Small vendors selling items like nuts, warm ‘channa’, sweet and green tea and sea shells etc, will lose their livihoods. People who used to earn a living through camel and horse rides or monkey will soon be gone.• For centuries fishermen have been benefiting from the beach in earning their livelihood but now they have been stopped from doing so.
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