1 INTRODUCTION

The summer of 2022 began the most devastating monsoon season in Pakistan’s recent history. Extreme flooding, heavy rain, and landslides have impacted over 33 million people, leaving 5.5 million people with no access to clean water and over 1,500 dead (UNICEF, 2022; Reuters, 2022). Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan with a population of just over 14.9 million people, is home to a prevalent number of informal settlements who have been disproportionately impacted by the flood.

Resting on the southern corner of Pakistan, northeast of the Arabian Sea, the city is projected by the United Nations (UN) to become one of the ten largest megacities in the near future. (United Nations, 2018). This extreme population growth coupled with more frequent and severe weather events is exposing a deeply embedded lack of infrastructure and resiliency in Karachi’s informal settlements. Community-driven initiatives have become a dominant and positive force in the city, utilizing citizen-science methods such as mapping to prevent evictions due to drain widening, a government technique for reducing urban flooding (Chandra, 2021).

This report presents a review of Karachi’s refugee history, environment, demography, and urban sprawl and identifies 5 major informal settlements that are at the forefront of these interactions: Orangi Town, Machar Colony, Pahar Ganj, Rehri Goth, and Labour Square. The residents of these communities come from diverse backgrounds as a result of forced political migration, rural migrants, and an increasing number of climate refugees. We discuss community actions taken by these informal settlements to protect themselves from vulnerable living conditions caused by climate change and population increase.