Lessons from Karachi: the role of demonstration, documentation, mapping and relationship building in advocacy for improved urban sanitation and water services

The work on community-led sanitation by the Orangi Pilot Project in Pakistan is among the best-known and best-documented experiences of reaching low-income urban dwellers with good quality sanitation. But what is less well documented is the strategy used by the Orangi Pilot Project to get the initiatives they support to have a citywide impact and to engage government institutions in the expansion of community-led sanitation. This paper discusses how the demonstration of solutions and the documentation and mapping that are at the heart of the work of the Orangi Pilot Project–Research and Training Institute (OPP–RTI) established the grounds on which relations with both government and communities were built. It identifies formal and informal processes, underscoring how these relationships have been nurtured over time. Thus the report delves deeper into the process and strategy for advocacy.

Although Karachi has underground sewerage systems, their maintenance and expansion have not kept pace with the urban physical and population increases that have taken place since the 1970s. As the old systems began to collapse, ad hoc arrangements were made to connect them to the nearest natural drains or water bodies. New urban settlements, housing colonies and katchi abadis (informal settlements) also developed their underground sewers or open drains and, in the absence of planned disposal systems, disposed the waste into the natural drainage systems. As a result, in almost all cases sewage is disposed into the natural drainage system and water bodies or in depressions. According to official estimates, the sewerage system serves only 40 per cent of the city’s population. Only 20–40 million gallons per day (i.e. less than 15 per cent) of the 295–350 million gallons per day of wastewater and sewage produced by the city is treated. The rest goes directly into the sea. As a result of untreated sewage reaching the sea, and because of an absence of separation between industrial and domestic sewage, sea life near the Karachi shoreline has been polluted with toxic metals.

The report then describes the work of the Orangi Pilot Project, starting with its formation in 1980, through its experiences with supporting the ever-wider application of community-supported sanitation. It discusses the main elements of the OPP–RTI’s advocacy strategy, field experience and documentation/mapping, the linkages and partnerships with government, the research and extension, and the civil society partnerships and networks (including the work with the Urban Resource Centre). This includes a discussion of how it managed to move the sanitation agenda in Karachi from a large number of successful community-led initiatives to a citywide strategy within which these community-led initiatives could work better. This approach is illustrated in the discussion of the various communication channels used by OPP–RTI to promote its messages. Apart from using various networks as platforms for its messages and maintaining direct contacts with government officers, it also makes effective use of the local and national media. OPP–RTI also receives large delegations of government representatives, NGOs, academics and donors from all over and beyond Pakistan. Through its ties with NGOs and academia abroad, OPP–RTI’s approach has become well known internationally. As a rule, OPP–RTI eschews confrontation with government officials in the public sphere. Confrontation for its own sake can destroy carefully nurtured relationships for no apparent benefit. In order to get wider dissemination of issues and solutions, OPP–RTI encourages the media to visit its offices and sites and to observe for themselves, understand and report accordingly.