A plan for Karachi

The one-week deadline to clean Karachi given by the Chief Justice of Pakistan ended last week; and the city remains the same. It will take more than just a deadline to transform the city that reeks of trash. And garbage is just one of the countless problems that the largest city of the country faces. Recently, Karachi was ranked among the cheapest cities in terms of cost of living by the Economist Intelligence Unit, unfortunately all for the wrong reasons: income inequality, lack of jobs, lower wages, lower standards of living, political instability, lack of basic infrastructure are all prevalent in the city. (Read: Cheaper with deeper evils, published on March 20,2018).

World Bank has recently quoted $9-10 billion of financing need for Karachi over a period of 10 years to fix its debilitating infrastructure and service delivery in water and sanitation, transport, and waste management. Compared to this, the current availability of public finance is dismal, which is partly due to what the WB refers to as an important source of financing for the cities: urban property tax. As the illustration shows, urban property tax collection is four times less in Sindh when compared to Punjab.

The report titled, “Transforming Karachi into a Livable and Competitive Mega city: A City Diagnostic and Transformation Strategy” is a thorough analysis of the city’s problems and the required action plan. Let’s look at the highlights that this diagnostic report offers.

The analysis of the city is structured around three pathways that include growth and prosperity, livability, and sustainability. Though Karachi continues to have high per capita income in the country and contributes around 11-20 percent of the country’s GDP, it economic climb has been laden with declining competitiveness of its traditional sectors of manufacturing and trade, especially relative to other cities due to stiff competition from China, power supply, large and expanding infrastructure gap, and security and political unrest. And sadly, it has lost its manufacturing activity to Punjab that now houses the domestic business clusters.

The city is becoming less livable by the day as the population continues to grow, making basic service delivery an arduous task, whether its public transports, water supply, sanitation or solid waste disposal. The city’s declining competitiveness and livability is also hinged to it high vulnerability to disasters and environmental pollution. Plus, lack of coordination, and clarity between federal, provincial, and local governments, has worsened the city’s problems.

The WB Group has put forth some very common and well-acknowledged guidelines to move towards addressing the city’s needs like building inclusive, coordinated, and accountable institutions, and closing infrastructure gaps while preserving its economic, social and environmental assets. It recommends a phased approach to dealing with the burgeoning issues of the city.

Some takeaways from the WB’s detailed recommendations include mends to urban planning by creating formal coordination mechanisms for integrated city development; also revision, update and approval of Karachi Strategic Development Plan 2020 in the current context is advised. Empowering, accountability, and enhancement of capacity of the local government are highlighted to be key in improving city governance. Significant focus on public transport and mass transit system is needed with Sindh Mass

Transit Authority and the city government being on the same page; there is not only a need for private sector investment in public transport system and improvement in urban road space and traffic management, but also improvement in non-motorized transport environment by developing sidewalks, road crossings, bikeways, etc.

For water and sewerage, WB recommends that Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) to be transformed it into an autonomous, professionally managed body. On immediate basis, the sector needs improved consultation and outreach along with stakeholder engagement. Also, to account for water usage, net demand for water is advised to be established with a long term policy. Medium to long-term plans in water and sewerage include investment in pumping efficiency improvement and rehabilitation, sewerage expansion, and water distribution.

Solid waste management, another primary area of concern for the city also has a set of short-term and long-term solutions. These include, but are not limited to, clarification of responsibilities between local governments and Sindh Solid Waste Management Board; and building a legal framework and strategising for solid waste management including landfills, recycling, pricing, etc.

The Karachi City Diagnostic (KCD) report, Transforming Karachi into a Livable and Competitive Mega city has been prepared at the request of Sindh government, which requested analysis by the World Bank Group for strategic advice in improving the livability and competitiveness of Karachi. WB has delivered; will the government deliver? Will it take on the responsibility to implement the advice? While the analysis clearly calls for a joint commitment on priority basis, will the report even form the basis of discussion between the city authorities and the provincial and federal government? The current political situation doesn’t warrant it.