BENEATH Lahore’s signal-free corridors and road infrastructure lies a darker truth: crumbling sewerage lines, contaminated tap water, poor drainage and erratic service delivery for citizens, especially those from poor and middle-income backgrounds. These failures inflate household expenditures and expose families to serious health risks. A new study by the HRCP and EU has brought these structural inequities into sharp focus, underscoring serious violations of basic human rights in the design and delivery of these services in Lahore. The report rightly argues that the city’s water, sewerage and drainage challenges are outcomes of fragmented governance; multiple agencies operate with overlapping and conflicting mandates, while disregarding rights-based service delivery. It highlights the exclusion of trans persons and people with disabilities. Infrastructure that ignores inclusivity undermines the promise of equal citizenship. Perhaps the most telling example of institutional failure is the proliferation of commercial filtration plants that has created a system in which access to safe drinking water increasingly depends on purchasing power. What should be a guaranteed public good has, in effect, become a commodified necessity. Urban flooding is another example of bad governance such as poor urban planning and inadequate maintenance. Climate change deepens such vulnerabilities.

The city has expanded rapidly over the past two decades or so. However, infrastructure planning has not kept pace with population growth or environmental realities. The absence of an empowered, elected local government further weakens accountability of service providers, depriving citizens of representation and redress. For Lahore, the challenge is not simply to build more roads or replace ageing pipes. It is to recognise that beyond the city’s visible infrastructure is a question of equity and public responsibility. Until the issues underlined in the report are treated as fundamental rights, the financial, social and human costs will continue to be borne disproportionately by those least able to afford them.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2026