ISLAMABAD: Residents of the Model Urban Shelter Project in Alipur Farah blocked Lehtrar Road with piles of garbage on Saturday to protest the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) failure to provide them with basic facilities.

The protesting residents, most of them women, said Farash Town was declared a model project 20 years ago, but has yet to receive healthcare and sanitation facilities.

Farash Town is located on the outskirts of Islamabad, and is one of the CDA’s urban shelter schemes. It houses many residents who were located from various informal settlements, known as katchi abadis, in the capital, such as Bari Imam, Muslim Colony, I-9 and I-10.

Containing approximately 4,000 plots spread over 165 acres, Farash Town is divided into three phases, but their development has not been completed for years.

Despite pledging to transform Farash Town into a model town for Islamabad’s urban working class, the CDA has not provided its residents with basic facilities.

Roads are poorly developed, and drinking water shortages and a faulty sewage system have led to outbreaks of diseases such as typhoid in the area.

The CDA also does not provide the area with trash collection services, causing mountains of garbage to pile up outside homes and along streets, increasing the risk of disease.

Rukhsana Rasheed, a Farash Town resident, told protesters that they have been working for years to bring such facilities to the area, but the CDA has not listen.

“Now we have no choice but to start throwing our garbage on the main road, because that is the only way the CDA will listen to us. We have always cooperated with the CDA, but the fact is that the residents of model town are facing the same problems as the residents of slums,” she said.

Ms Rasheed added that if the CDA did not start collecting garbage, residents would leave truckloads of garbage on the road.

Speaking at the protest, Awami Workers Party (AWP) Punjab Deputy General Secretary Alia Amirali criticised the CDA for its negligence and said it should fulfil its obligations to provide citizens with basic facilities, regardless of class.

She added: “It seems that the area was developed without any planning. Sui gas and water facilities are not provided in the area. The CDA is not even ready to collect garbage. It seems that the poor are only allowed to live in Islamabad to serve the elite,” she said.

Local residents and members of the AWP said they would continue protesting until the CDA sets up a consistent trash collection service for Farah Town. Protesters dispersed peacefully after local administration and police arrived.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2017