Riverside slum residents refuse to evacuate despite flood warning

Illegal settlements along Ravi River have existed for years with settlers often obtaining stay orders

LAHORE:

With many areas of Lahore given flood warnings, the future of those who dwell in illegal slums and shanty towns hangs in the balance as vacating means they might not have a home to return to.

It was recently decided that local administration would launch operations to evacuate the illegal settlements established around the Ravi River. At present these exist at Shahdara Town, Aslam Park, Begum Bagh, Majeed Park, Jahangir Park, Jahangir Colony, Babusabu, Ravi Clifton, Hasnain Park, Qazi Park, Saeed Park, Mehboob Park, Takia Pind, Rasool Park Siraj Park, Ghode Shah, Mahale Kakezai, and Shahdara Pulian.

However, while some of the local administration’s operations have yielded success, others failed as those who call these shanties their home are not willing to leave despite the flood warnings. Amongst these dwellers is 55-year-old Muhammad Latif, resident of the Saeed Park area which is along the northern bank of the river. “I recently received a notice from the Metropolitan Corporation that due to the risk of flooding I should evacuate.” However, Latif and hundreds of others who have received such notices are yet to move. “I have been living here for the past 11 years. I see no reason why I should move,” Latif reasoned, adding that he was not living for free but had actually bought the land. He further argued that such evacuation notices are issued every time there is a flood but nothing really happens. “Plus, I have nowhere else to go.” Another resident of the area, Abdul Rahman, taking a similar line to Latif, inquired as to why everyone had issues now but did not have any when they were paying millions of rupees to buy the land. “Were the Deputy Commissioner and the local administration sleeping then?” an irate Rahman asked, adding that he would not vacate his house under any circumstances.

Over the last two decades dozens of settlements have propped up along the empty bed of the Ravi River and many who live here think like Latif and Rahman do. Spokesperson of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), Tasawwar Chaudhry, when asked as to how they planned on vacating the settlers, said that his department’s job was to issue the flood warning, the responsibility of evacuation lay with the district administration. The Express Tribune then asked the Metropolitan Corporation on their evacuation plan and was told by the spokesperson that this back and forth with the settlers was a regular occurrence. “There are two types of encroachments near the river. One is nomads living in huts and the other is slums.

The nomads self-vacate the area during floods and move to a safer place and return when the water recedes,” he explained. However, the residents of the slums on the other hand always put up a fight, as per the spokesperson. “There is an operation against such encroachments not only during floods but also during normal days. But it is true that these illegal settlements have not been removed. In many areas, people have obtained stay orders from the courts, so we cannot do much,” the Metropolitan Corporation spokesperson said while talking to The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2022.