Housing: The bane of agricultural lands

Illegal societies are threatening Peshawar’s environment, will trigger food insecurity in the future

PESHAWAR:

With the seemingly never ending population boom in the country, as evidenced by the results of the latest census, the demand for shelter will continue to rise. Resultantly, business will keep booming for housing societies and agricultural land will have to give way to gated communities.

Khyber-Pakthunkhwa’s (K-P) capital, Peshawar, seems to be in this very conundrum as the city’s rising headcount, which is growing at an annual rate of 3.99 per cent as per the Bureau of Statistics, has triggered an unprecedented demand for housing.

“At the current rate of population growth, Peshawar needs about 1.5 million new houses every year,” informed Professor Dr Nafees Mohammad, Head of the Environmental Science Department at the University of Peshawar.

It is this upsurge in demand which housing societies’ owners looking for huge paydays are exploiting and have started building gated communities left, right, and centre in the provincial capital - many of which are illegal. According to numbers obtained from the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA), from January 2018 to November 2021, the department received 237 applications for small and large housing societies. Out of these 237, only 8 were approved, whereas 18 are still under scrutiny.

Nevertheless, many who had applied for approvals from the authority, did not bother waiting for the approval and went ahead with construction of the societies. Consequently, PDA’s numbers show that Peshawar currently has 161 illegal housing societies - out of which 33 societies’ cases have been referred to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Assistant Director at the PDA, Dawood Shah, whilst confirming the numbers, told The Express Tribune that a new law had been passed recently and now housing societies fell under the domain of the local government department. “Therefore, the Tehsil Municipal Administration will not look after all things related to housing societies. When we had the jurisdiction, we banned a significant number of societies and penalised the owners as well,” said Shah.

In light of Shah’s revelation, The Express Tribune reached out to representatives of the Tehsil Municipal Administration and local governments department again to inquire about the status of the illegal housing societies but did not hear back from them.

While it remains to be seen whether the illegal societies will be demolished or not, Dr Mohammad warned that the increase in demand for housing means that the city’s agricultural land, environment, and water supply would have to be sacrificed.

Professor Dr Atta-ur-Rehman, Head of the Department of Geography and Geomatics at the University of Peshawar, agrees. “Peshawar has already become a city of concrete blocks. There is no greenery here anymore. Anywhere you look, you will see construction activity of one kind or another,” Dr Rehman regretted, further adding that it was unfortunate that the government had done little to protect green spaces or encourage sustainable construction.

“Part of the reason why housing societies are encroaching upon agricultural land is that our legislation vis-a-vis land is outdated. Without new legislation, which recognizes the need to protect green spaces and water resources, we will continue to hurt the environment in our need for housing. In the end we will be left with no greenery, no water, and high levels of food insecurity,” predicted Dr Rehman while talking to The Express Tribune.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2023.