Housing plan threatens Sandspit backwater ecology

Faiza Ilyas in DAWN:

“The government has been urged several times to declare the entire Sandspit/Hawkesbay area (including the turtle nesting grounds) a nature reserve where the state needs to regulate human interference. It’s painful that now another plan is in the offing and that, too, not by any private organisation but a public sector department to destroy what little biodiversity is left in the backwater,” said deputy director general WWF-P Dr Ejaz Ahmad.

Once domestic sewage would start flowing from coastal housing projects into the backwater, small in-house factories would also appear and it would be difficult to stop the ecosystem from complete collapse, he pointed out.

More here.

Report highlights factors hindering proper city planning

Peerzada Salman in DAWN:

KARACHI, Aug 26: Too many land owning agencies, weak governance, a vast number of unauthorised katchi abadis (informal settlements) and multiple land ownership are some of the major impediments in the way of resolving Karachi’s land-related problems. This has been revealed in a latest study titled ‘Karachi: the land issue’.

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Adverse Effects of Ribbon Commercialisation in Karachi


In the past few years the residential areas of Karachi have increasingly been unlawfully commercialized. This has destroyed many residential zones and turned whole areas into commercial districts. Successive master plans have had limited impact influencing development patterns in the city, leaving it unable to cope with the challenges of urban land development.