3 URBAN SPRAWL & SETTLEMENTS

The built-up area of Karachi was a little over 100 square kilometers at the time of the Partition in 1947. The current size of its metropolitan area is now over 3,427 square kilometers. The British land settlements of the 19th century governed land ownership and governance prior to the division. All land belonged to the government of Sindh which had granted sizable land portions to the Karachi Port Trust. The Karachi Port Trust also happens to be one of the largest owners of the land on which many urban colonies of Karachi exist (Hasan, 2015). Population growth due to migration meant that houses occupied originally by wealthy Hindu families were eventually occupied by numerous low-income Muslim families. Oftentimes, additional floors were built into existing house structures and community areas were converted into multi-family homes.

In 1958, the Greater Karachi Resettlement Plan was enacted with consulting from Greek planner, Constantinos A. Doxiadis. The plan was meant to integrate the massive migrant population into satellite towns surrounding the city. The plan revolved around industries and housing that never fully surfaced. A high density, multi-ethnic, and economically diverse city was reduced under the Doxiadis plan to an ultimately low-density sprawl, divided by race and economic class (Hasan, 2015).

An estimated 80,000 additional housing units are needed in Karachi per year. About 32,000 housing units are provided by the formal sector, while an additional 32,000 are constructed in informal settlements. Most of the unmet demand is represented by poor Karachiites who account for over 75% of the total population (Hasan, 2015). Due to this, informal settlements in Karachi, referred to as Katchi Abadis, have continued to expand across the city. The residential land area in Karachi makes up 36 percent of the total area of the city, and one eighth of this land houses 60 percent of the total population in the Katchis Abadis (Hasan, 2015). Contrastingly, almost 75 percent of the residential area outside of the informal settlements house only 38 percent of the population.

Today, 72 percent of the Katchi Abadis are accepted by the government thanks to the efforts of local residents demanding land titles for their property (OPP, n.d.). However, due a lack of government response to assist with the development of the settlements, issues of sewage disposal, diminishing water supply, and lack of clinics and schools have become rampant problems. The following section gives a brief overview of the largest and most vulnerable informal settlement communities in Karachi, many of which are home to the refugees discussed in Section 1.