Deadly constructions

Multiple localities in Karachi are home to multi-storey buildings erected on a small patch of land, usually housing an upward of ten people per floor. While poverty and the ever-increasing inability of underprivileged families to invest in housing force people to flock to such abodes, sometimes six to twelve stories tall, their helplessness becomes an inevitable calamity not only for themselves but for entire neighbourhoods.

Fresh efforts to eliminate such buildings have been underway since the start of this year, with 1,622 dangerous and illegal buildings already demolished. Lately, Advocate Saifuddin, the Leader of the Opposition in the City Council, has called upon the Director General of Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) to cease such constructions and help enact a building control law to regulate future incidents.

The history of worn-out and neglected multi-storey buildings in this city is tragic. Throughout the years, numerous carelessly architected buildings have collapsed due to various reasons. Sometimes, the problem is an unstable foundation. Other times, the problem is substandard construction material. But whatever cause may be captured in the moment, the central reason is always the erection of a building without proper safety regulations. These illegal buildings have buried over 40 people solely in the last five years.

Earlier this year, Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Memon reminded reporters that the government has no legal obligation to provide housing to those displaced as a result of evacuating and demolishing illegal buildings — but that efforts will be made to accommodate those with no other option. This touches the root of the issue: the housing crisis. If the government aims to permanently solve the crisis of illegal constructions, it must also solve the crisis of poor people having no place to live. Both of these issues go hand in hand, and the already-high death toll from building collapses has marked this as an urgent matter.