City governments have little capacity and concern
The city is a mirror. It shows us what we are as citizens. One doesn’t have to be a genius to understand this. It is obvious. But it requires a lot of effort to change the picture that we see in the mirror in front of us. Changing the perception about the urban disorder around us would be absurd – not even any artistic form would help. More so, it will be naïve if we think that someone else will correct the mess that we call our cities, put them in shape, and make them healthy and livable.
If it bothers us, there is only one option at hand. Migration. Moving to another place that we like or to a state of resistance against the perpetual decline, a state of activism and engagement to continuously watch and improve living conditions in the cities. One thing is clear, it is always us from where this process will start. By any chance, if one of us is thinking about the thing called the government to come forward, he/she is wrong. The city governments have little capacity and concern to take care of all this because we are not interested.
Solid waste generation in Pakistan is 0.283 kg to 0.612 kg per capita per day with a growth rate of 2.4 percent. There are no designated garbage disposal sites in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Multan and Gujranwala
Just a quick review of the capacity of the local governments; around 40 percent of the piped water provided by the water agencies in Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad is wasted. These bodies need huge amount of money to overhaul their supply system and to improve the quality of water. When they look at their recoveries, either we don’t pay them or we resist when they revise water tariff. In Lahore, the tariff was revised in 2004 and before that in 1988. In Faisalabad, the revision of rates took place in 2006. The water that runs in the pipes is mostly not fit for human consumption.
Solid waste generation in Pakistan is 0.283 kg to 0.612 kg per capita per day with a growth rate of 2.4 percent. There are no designated garbage disposal sites in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Multan and Gujranwala. The cities of Sindh like Hyderabad, Sukkar, Larkana and Khairpur, etc, provide 40 percent coverage to garbage collection and little attention is paid to its proper disposal. There is no sewage treatment system in second tier cities of Sindh. 60 percent of urban population is connected with sanitary drainage — mainly open sewers often blocked and making ponds of waste water. The litany goes on to the urban transport. While the poor are complaining about the affordability, safety and adequacy of the transit facilities, the rich are all the time talking about the congestion of the roads. And the governments have got solutions for the latter only. Similarly, decent housing in our cities is far from the reach of even educated middle classes because there might be other priorities for the state authorities.
The city managers are what they are (say corrupt, inefficient, etc) because we have never asked for empowered representation in the system. Soon our people will be there. The local government elections have been announced. Balochistan has already got a system in place. But this would solve one part of the problem. The second will be addressed through continuous participation and engagement in municipal affairs – a volunteer movement of the citizens to remove encroachments from city spaces on their own and demand improvements, to pay urban taxes and ask for transparent spending, to keep the city environment clean and other corrective arrangements which our urban centres badly need.
The city managers are what they are (say corrupt, inefficient, etc) because we have never asked for empowered representation in the system
I suggest this revolution should start from the rich and the middle classes in our cities. The urban youth — yearning for change in the country – can initiate this from their university campuses. And start from fighting with car addiction for example. When walking or biking becomes a trend in their communities, things will be much more different. A strong demand for cleaner and greener environment would generate. More asphalt space would be created for walking and biking on existing lanes (not the expansion for cars) followed by new and stricter safety measures. Followed by more urban facilities (from basic to luxuries) in rich neighbourhoods and gradually out of them; demanded, designed and distributed by the people. This can just be one urban agenda.
Am I asking for a great favour? If I do, why do even we talk of and travel to great cities of the world if we cannot learn one or two things from them on how communities take charge and work hard to transform their settlements. We will have to remember that healthy, vibrant and livable places are always the creation of aspiration, participation, deliberation and action by the citizens.