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The Cost of Unplanned Urbanization
Urban Flooding Exposes Cracks in Sindh’s Planning: The Urgent Need for Climate-Resilient Cities
by Nasir Ali Panhwar | Published Nov 1st, 2024
Urban flooding and climate change are exposing the failures of unplanned urbanization across Sindh, especially in Hyderabad. With outdated infrastructure and the absence of sustainable planning, the province faces escalating environmental and social challenges.
Urban flooding has become a recurring phenomenon for which concerned departments are not prepared to respond effectively. Today, almost all cities and towns of Sindh are devoid of master plans and town planning principles. The effects of unplanned urbanisation have proved to be detrimental to the citizens of the province. Our response to any disaster is a reactive myopic solution. Hence symptomatic treatment will not improve the condition of an ailing system. Only a long-term sustainable system would address the complex problems of unplanned urbanisation. Hyderabad and its Qasimabad taluka in particular are seeing unplanned urbanisation, specially with haphazard growth in the construction sector. In the last few years, ill-planned construction over natural waterways has brought everything to the brink of devastation. Hyderabad has seen mushroom growths in residential and commercial schemes which were undertaken without a comprehensive master plan, land use plan and zoning - prerequisites for depriving citizens of recreational facilities. Acquisition of agriculture and pasture for housing has also altered land use pattern. According to a World Bank report titled "South Asia's Hotspots", the Sindh province is the most vulnerable hotspot — areas where climate change will adversely affect living standards — followed by Punjab. "Changes in average weather will add another dimension to the future growth of Sindh, given its high vulnerability," it reads. Climate change is no longer a distant possibility but a current reality. Global temperatures have recorded unprecedented increases and so is the case in Pakistan.
The length and timing of seasons are changing. The frequency and severity of floods and cyclones accompanied by rising sea levels are increasing. In short, climate change has become one of the defining challenges of this countrys. Resilience is the ability of a system to withstand stresses while maintaining its form and function. Resilience of cities therefore depends on the ability to maintain essential assets and ensure access to services and functions that support the needs of citizens and businesses. It is evident from the recent rains that infrastructure of urban areas is not climate reslient which can be defined as the ability to adapt, reorganise and evolve to improve the sustainablity of the systems for future climate change impacts.
The author is a development professional and author of the book “Earthly Matters”
It is high time for us to completely rethink developments paradigms of cities to encourage environment-friendly and sustainable development practices. We cannot afford to have super-structures based on the usual capitalistic model. It is imperative that spaces and facilities like rain gardens, retention basins, and detention ponds are developed that capture rainwater and allow it to filter underground. The immediate necessity is of ecologically conscious urban planners.
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