AS if twin islands of Sindh (Bundaar and Dingi) were not enough, the government has decided to develop 60,000 acres on Hawkesbay to construct a modern city named as Sugarland City.

The project is to be implemented by a Dubai based business entity the “Limitless”, which is an integrated real estate development company and is a business unit of the Dubai World, one of Dubai's leading business groups. The Limitless was set up in July 2005, with the key objective of diversifying and globalising Dubai’s portfolio of leading development companies by leveraging the know-how and exposure gained by the Dubai World’s real estate initiatives through the Nakheel.

Presiding over a meting on June 24, 2006, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz approved the Dubai World’s investment plan. The Dubai World is a holding company that manages and supervises the portfolio of businesses and projects for Dubai Government and works towards making Dubai the leading hub for the commerce and trading industry.

It was decided at the meeting that the project would be executed in two phases. In the first phase the Manora area in conjunction with the Sandspit area and the area behind it the KPT’s Western back waters up to KPT’s land limits with the Hawkesbay be offered to the group. However, environmental concerns may be resolved before undertaking the project.

In the second phase, while developing the Hawkesbay beach front, it should be ensured that beach fronts are developed in such a way that portions are available to general public for recreational purpose. One year down the road, however local communities and stakeholders have not been told as to how the local communities and their natural resources would be protected.

According to the official website of the City District Government of Karachi, City Nazim of Karachi Syed Mustafa Kamal told journalists that master plan to construct a new city ‘Karachi Water Front Sugarland City’ at the Hawkesbay has been finalised and it will be constructed on 60,000 acres at an estimated cost of $68 billion. Responding to a question, the Nazim said that President General Pervez Musharraf had approved the plan and this project would be the biggest in the country to provide job opportunity to millions of people.

He said the concerned authorities have been issued NOC for the construction of new city at the Hawkesbay. The meeting was also attended by federal minister for shipping Babar Ghori, Chief Minister of Sindh, Chief Secretary of Sindh, KPT Chairman, representative of the Nafeel Development and the Chief Executive of the Dubai Islamic Bank.

The website of the Limitless explains the salient features of the project as under:

“The project is a joint initiative of the Limitless and the government of Pakistan to create a new, balanced waterfront development - Karachi Water Front, on a 25,000 hectares west of the city of Karachi. The “new city” would contain a defined and carefully weighted balance of residential, commercial, recreational and entertainment facilities in state of the art, master-planned communities. The development would also be home to special economic zones creating a hub for trading, manufacturing and services industry supported by world-class infrastructure and amenities. Phase 1 of the project will involve an investment of $20bn. over the next 10 years for developing more than 2000 hectares of prime water-front property. Subsequent phases of the project are expected to involve much larger investments.”

According to the daily Khaleej Times of Feb 3, 2007, a visit to Pakistan by the UAE vice-president and prime minister (and ruler of Dubai), Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, resulted in the signing of two separate MoUs to develop two island cities close to the coast of Karachi. The two cities will be developed in phases over the next 10 years. Diamond Bar Island City will be constructed with a hefty investment of $43 billion, whereas the Sugarland City will cost $68bn.

Although the government as usual has not made project details public, however various sources have been disclosing some components of the project. According to media reports, the project also involves the construction of man-made islands, high rises and a five star hotel.

Since the project is being planned in a highly sensitive coastal environment, it can potentially have severe impacts on local environment and communities.

The Sandspit is the sandy beach located in the project area. The five kilometres long sandy strip hosts unique eco-system of endangered species of green turtle. This is a major breeding point of the green turtles. The Sindh Wildlife Department and the World Wide Fund for Nature has been working on conservation of green turtles since many years. Mega construction schemes may not only disturb this fragile eco-system but may also completely devoid this area from green turtles.

In the backwaters, mangroves ecosystem provides resting place to a variety of migratory birds. Noisy construction work and enhanced vehicular movement will cause deterrence to migratory birds and they may abandon this area. The area owned by KPT has mangroves and vegetation cover spread over 400-500 hectares (over 1000 acres). The mangrove eco-system has multiple benefits including resting place for migratory birds and nursery for shrimp and several fish species.

Local fishing communities also use these forests for fodder and fuel. Mangrove eco-system in the Indus Delta is poorly managed and severely threatened. Projects like Diamond Bar and Sugarland City can cause severe damage to this eco-system.

The Hawkesbay is among the most beautiful resort places in the country. Thousands of visitors frequent beautiful locations such as Cap Mounz, French Beach and Paradise Point on the Hawkesbay. Once the city of rich is erected, no common man would have easy access to these charming views of nature. This will also deprive hundreds of daily wage earners at these picnic points. A number of huts constructed in the area would also be demolished. These huts are owned by some individuals and private companies. Local people are hired as caretakers on these huts. If these huts are removed and people stopped visiting picnic points, several hundred local villagers will loose their livelihood resources.

Socio-economic impacts would be far greater for the ages old fishing communities living in the area. There are two union councils on the Hawkesbay, namely Gabo Pat and Baba Island. State of development in these goths is in pathetic condition. The Gabo Pat Union Council has more than 100 goths, some of them more than a century old. Total population in this union council is over 100,000 people. Some of the villages have sizable population like Abdul Rehman goth (8,000), Faqeer Mohammad (3,000).

There are nine dehs in the union council. Only two dehs (Lal Bakhar and Gound Pas) have water supply system, which is also not reliable. The rest have no any drinking water facility provided by government. They receive water tankers occasionally. Out of eight Basic Health Units, only one is properly functioning. Another is partially functional and others are non-functional. Local communities have very limited transport facilities to reach the heart of city. Only two buses ply every day to take people to and from these goths to the Lea Market.

Baba Island Union Council comprises three big islands namely Baba Island (16,000 population), Bhit Island (12,000 population) and Shams Pir Island (3,000 population). There are some large villages like Younisabad (3,500 population) and Kaka Pir (1,000 people). Centuries old Islands and villages in this union council are also deprived of basic human needs such as drinking water. It is strange that the government never concentrated on developing these old heirs of Karachi.

Has there been any genuine commitment with the development of people, huge investment would have been made to improve state of human development in rural and urban areas of Pakistan. Social development indicators particularly of health, education, drinking water and sewerage are pathetically poor in the country. In many social sector areas we lag behind Saarc countries and in some others even stand below the poor countries of Africa. Taking just an example of housing, the country needs 6.2 million new housing units to provide shelter to every citizen. Urban areas of Sindh require 135,000 new housing units to meet the present need and 200,000 units each year over a decade to clear the housing backlog. Rather than investing in housing for low-income shelter less citizens, huge sum of money is being committed for ultra-rich elite through such projects in the name of development.

Any development initiative violating the norms of sustainable development is considered as anti-thesis of development. It would be pertinent to suggest the decision makers to take the following steps before initiating any development projects.

• Details of such business deals should be brought into public knowledge and a dialogue with relevant stakeholders should be initiated before proceeding on the project. Secret deals make the whole process non-transparent and deprive citizens from their basic right of access to information.

• Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997 requires a thorough environmental and social impact assessment of such projects. This important legal binding is often ignored in large-scale public sector projects. EIA of Diamond Bar Island City on the twin island has also not been conducted.

• The whole development package on the Karachi coast will have a cumulative impact on coastal eco-systems. Therefore, project based EIAs may not depict true picture of environmental and social impacts. It requires strategic impact assessment (both social and environmental) to take holistic picture of likely impacts on natural resources and local communities. It is worth mentioning here that the Karachi coast homes an integrated fragile and complex eco-system involving vanishing mangroves, dwindling fish species and fast disappearing migratory birds. Any development schemes of such scale would have potential negative impact on its eco-system.

• Constructing artificial islands and mega structures on beaches will complicate the climatic impact on Karachi. Mangroves forests are considered as a shield to negative climatic impacts on coastal areas. It is apprehended that natural barriers to cyclones, tides and sea winds might loose their existence inviting unforeseen climatic impact on Karachi.

• Exact location of the project should be announced and communities to be affected should be informed about the project well in advance. Local communities and the Union Council Nazims are completely unaware of the project and the likely impacts on their resources and livelihood. It is apprehended that around 200,000 residents of the Hawkesbay will be affected due to this development. In case of large scale displacement it will bring a social disaster as displacement and resettlement history of large projects in the country narrates horrible stories of human disaster.

• Civil society concerns on these projects should be given serious consideration. Any development causing more damage than benefit or tilting delicate social imbalance in favour of the privileged class would bring social disharmony and social stratification.