ISLAMABAD: Thousands of slum dwellers in the capital city are living a miserable life and vulnerable to different diseases as two residents of Rimsha Colony have already tested positive for the coronavirus.

The federal capital has dozens of authorised and illegal slums due to the decades-old negligence of Capital Development Authority (CDA) which took no serious efforts to provide better facilities to the residents.

The slums are located all over the city such as in F-6, F-7, G-6, G-7, G-8, H-9, H-10, I-10 and Bari Imam.

But only 10 of these settlements are authorised. In terms of provision of basis facilities, life in these settlements is almost as bad as in the illegal slums. However, in the authorised slums the dwellers have utility connections.

After two dwellers of Rimsha Colony tested positive, screening of katchi abadi residents ordered, official says

“Except a few where people have electricity connections, people in almost all the slums are forced to live an inhuman life. They are prone to various diseases and even there is no provision of filtered and clean drinking water,” said Basharat Khokhar of Peace Worldwide, an NGO.

He said in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the government should announce special health and financial packages for the residents of slums. Following the two positive cases in Rimsha Colony, the residents of other slums are fearful and hesitant to get themselves tested for the virus, he said.

Asked if slum dwellers were taking precautionary measures against the virus, he said: “They are a marginalised community. In two-marla houses, in some cases two to three families reside. So it’s difficult for them to keep themselves in a proper quarantine. A special awareness campaign should be launched to inform the slum dwellers about the safety measures against the spread of coronavirus.

Dr Sharif Astori of Polyclinic said slum dwellers have no sanitation system and mostly they reside near filthy nullahs.

“Since, they have no proper facilities they are prone to various diseases which can even affect people living in settled areas,” he said.

The CDA, which failed to provide basic facilities to slum dwellers has also been unable to stop the growth of the irregular settlements.

In the past, an attempt was made to shift the slum dwellers from the city area to Alipur Farash where they had been allotted plots. However, most of the allottees after selling their plots returned to the city areas.

The project was started in early 2000s in order to provide plots to the dwellers of Essa Nagri I-9, Haq Bahu Colony, Muslim Colony of Bari Imam and Dhoke Najju of 1-10. When contacted, CDA spokesperson Syed Safdar Ali said during the last two years no new slum was set up in the capital.

“We have been conducting vigorous operations against new construction and during the last two years no new katchi abadi was set up,” he said.

Asked about provision of basis facilities, he said CDA provides facilities in regular slums. However, he said to provide a decent place to live for the slum dwellers the CDA had earmarked land and handed it over to Naya Pakistan Housing Authority to launch an apartment project in I-9 to accommodate slum dwellers.

He said phase-wise the slum dwellers would be provided accommodations.

Mr Ali said recently the management of the CDA also started a development project in Alipur Farash to provide a road network to the slum dwellers there.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Hamza Shafqaat said the director general health services of Metropolitan Corporation (MCI) and the district health officer had been directed to conduct screening of katchi abadis regarding Covid-19.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2020