THERE’S much hustle and bustle these days in the chambers of bureaucrats and officers working for the Sindh Planning and Development Department and in local institutions eg KMC. The core activity is the preparation of projects for the Annual Deve­lop­ment Programme. True, the chief minister has approved Rs2 billion for a few road repair and health projects, but is this enough?

Politically motivated wish lists, recommendations by the influential, and petitions from party henchmen and their ilk usually become the potpourri of development choices. However, there are many important projects that have been long awaiting the attention of provincial decision-makers and bureaucracy — projects which can improve the efficiency and social equity of Karachi as a metropolis.

A comprehensive road repair and maintenance project is the foremost priority; any commuter can testify to the extent to which various categories of roads are in serious disrepair, damaging even large vehicles, from University Road in the east to Mansfield Street in the south of the city. The poor design and quality of construction, lack of regular maintenance, frequent road-cutting and adjustments for other forms of buried infrastructure, overlapping of new development schemes such as the ongoing Bus Rapid Transit project and frequent spilling of fresh and sewage water are just some of the causes of their dilapidated condition. There have been many occurrences of vehicular accidents caused by damaged roads.

Karachi’s developed road length spans more than 9,000km. While extensive repairs and maintenance are necessary for about two-thirds of this, the work can be divided into phases. Firstly, all the major arterial roads should be repaired. Subsequent phases of the project should be to address repairing main roads in commercial locations, neighbourhoods and key industrial areas. The design and specification of such road works should be optimised to last for longer stretches of time. Lessons should be learnt from past projects, such as the ‘long-life road’ development programme undertaken by KMC in the 1990s, to construct roads needing negligible maintenance for up to 20 years or more.

Urban development can improve social equity.

It is also commonly observed that the city is littered with unattended solid waste; from affluent neighbourhoods to low-income settlements. Physicians and healthcare professionals warn that the scale and intensity of infectious diseases has increased manifold in the past few years.

Karachi produces more than 12,000 tonnes of solid waste every day — a figure that continues to rise due to consumerism — but only a tiny portion of this waste is disposed of (that too, improperly). The rest of this vast volume is either left unattended or periodically burnt, contributing to further health hazards. One can observe burning garbage in or near sensitive locations such as beaches and playgrounds, or find healthcare waste in municipal dump sites around the vicinity of large teaching hospitals — for which there is no excuse, given that smart and multipurpose solutions for disposing of municipal solid waste are now commonly available.

A waste-to-energy plant is capable of properly disposing of solid waste while also generating electricity; such plants are common across the world. Another version of this technology, when designed and constructed with appropriate specifications across coastal locations, can also generate potable water through desalination. There was an abortive attempt, made by the Defence Housing Authority, to design such a plant; capable of generating 94 megawatts of electricity and about three million gallons of drinking water per day; the plant did not work due to ‘technical’ iss­ues. However, better technical and procurement input can enable Karachi to benefit from more water, more electricity and a reduction in waste volumes. Incinera­tors, already installed in many public-sector hospitals, must be overhauled and connected to the waste disposal chain of large and medium healthcare facilities.

The city needs more basic projects. Increasing the number of green buses on city arterial roads can facilitate commuters to a greater extent, as will the rehabilitation of pedestrian paths along major thoroughfares. About 450 million gallons per day of untreated sewage is discharged into the sea; developing small- and medium-scale sewerage treatment plants at the discharging ends of city nullahs (drains) can safeguard our marine environment, and can also contribute recycled water for horticulture and irrigating our public landscape. A water loss-reduction project is another desperately urgent requirement. It is common knowledge that many of our water mains are past their shelf life and impacted by water leakages and organised thefts, for which appropriate, scientific interventions are required.

While it should be noted that many of the above recommended proposals are already cited, in the Karachi Strategic Development Plan 2020 and other important urban-planning documents, all these projects demand proper budget allocation, appropriate planning and design, and swift implementation.

The writer is chairman, Department of Architecture & Planning, NED University, Karachi.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2016