Shrinking greenery

Revelations made in a World Bank report that Karachi’s urban environment and infrastructure provision have not kept pace with its growth should not come as a surprise to the residents of the city. The report states that green areas have shrunk by 4% whereas the urban extent in the core city has expanded by 8% between 2005 and 2017. Informal settlements are pervasive in the central part of the city. The city’s population has increased from 10 million in 1998 to 16 million in 2017, mainly through migration. The share of public spaces out of the total built-up areas is 14%, and the share of street areas is 8.7%. There is a considerable number of unclassifiable public spaces and a lack of neighbourhood parks in the city. Further, despite being a highly residential city, in many residential neighbourhoods, there are no green areas that can provide environmental and social benefits for people.

The report picked two cities — Karachi and Dhaka — as case studies as they represent two densely-populated megacities in South Asia that rank low on liveability measure and suffer from weak planning and enforcement capacity. Dhaka and Karachi have large areas of vacant and open land — around 15% to 20% of the total built-up areas. These areas can be transformed into public spaces. The report stresses the need for increasing the number of public spaces such as neighbourhood parks, markets and community centres. It says city governments often don’t invest in the creation and management of quality public spaces due to poor urban planning and financial constraints.

It is, however, common knowledge that it is mismanagement, lack of political will and corruption that ail Karachi. Over the years, many parks have disappeared and in those spaces have come up tall buildings. This is, of course, not possible without official collusion. The irony is that greenery has decreased at a time when it’s most needed. The law of jungle prevails in Karachi, and in such a situation things can only deteriorate.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2020.

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