KARACHI: The second day of the Karachi conference did not bring glad tidings for the city or its inhabitants, with speaker after speaker bemoaning the obvious decline of the quality of life, meticulously backed up with facts and figures.

Be it health indicators, the depreciation of its tangible infrastructure, supplies of drinking water tainted beyond comprehension, or sanitation compromising hygiene, the list was endless.

Shahab Usto’s presentation was on civic amenities in the province, zoning in on what he refers to as “killer water and how it affects our live and our futures”.

He spoke about how in December 2016 he filed a petition asking the court to appoint a commission to investigate whether the people of Sindh were being provided with clean water. The commission was to record its observations on clean drinking water and sanitation in Sindh.

“The judge of the high court along with the commission with all the relevant officers, including me, visited almost all the major cities and visited different parts of water infrastructure — filter plants, treatment plants, RO plants, rivers, canals etc. Water samples were collected under the supervision of special judges and deputy commissioners. Samples were then tested in labs. Till date the results of this commission have not been contested by the government,” he said.

Mr Usto shared the city-wise results of the water samples tested across the province. “In Larkana out of 25 samples taken from the city, 22 were unsafe for consumption. This shows the amount of contaminated water being supplied. Shikarpur, which used to be known for its good water, now about 84 per cent of its water is not fit for consumption.”

Architecture in the city was also discussed, especially how it is being neglected and misused. Taimur Suri’s presentation was a depressing reminder of how neglect plagues public spaces in the city and how the citizens are not allowed to interact or connect with the very spaces that were originally built for them. The Bin Qasim Park is one such example.

Babar Sheikh spoke about how the commercial use of heritage sites has become an exploitation of sorts in the visual narrative coming out from the city, and on a macrocosm, the country.

“Art and architecture has become a metaphor to depict our roots and tradition in our visual art in this time and age where our identity is in question. However, in reality the moment the director shouts ‘pack up’ nobody actually cares about that architecture anymore. Very little is done for the building and the structure itself. It is just used to portray a certain image and identity.”

He suggested ways of rectifying this slight. One way he suggested, after discussing the issue with other individuals working on preserving the historic architecture of the city, was to give back proceeds earned during shooting to the maintenance and upkeep of very building used.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2017