Sindh’s low-cost housing projects

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Saleem Shaikh
“I don’t think I can ever own a house given my meagre earning. Buying a house is the prerogative of only the rich. I just keep trying to ensure that I feed my five-member family,” said Nazir Magsi, a local fruit seller who lives in a straw hut on the outskirts of Shikarpur.

Millions like Nazir Magsi in Sindh cannot afford even a two-room small house. Their low incomes decline as inflation surges. Estimates are that the province needs more than 2-2.5 million houses for the low-income families every year.

While the number of families without shelter has touched an alarming proportion, the condition of homeless families in rural areas is more distressing. Amid this dismal picture, the Sindh government’s projects for low-cost housing units are seen as a welcome move.

The recent years have hardly witnessed any construction activity, particularly housing in the rural areas, said Mohammad Ali, a former president of Larkana Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“Although the demand for housing has risen substantially in view of the rising population, there are only a few families who can afford to buy a house or a plot and kick off construction work on it,” he added.

This has led to an unstoppable growth of squatter settlements known as katchi abadis or slum areas. An estimated 50 per cent of urban population lives in the slum areas. The province needs 100,000 housing units to accommodate escalating number of homeless poor, says an urban planning expert of Shehri.

To address the issue, the Sindh government has launched low-cost housing projects, initially, to build 100,000 housing units in different parts of the province under public-private partnership. For this purpose Thatta, Badin, Shikarpur and Kashmore-Kandhkot, Larkana, Sukkur, Khairpur districts have been selected on priority basis.

The pilot project in lower part of the province comprises 500 houses, 200 each in Badin and Thatta and 100 in Karachi’s Rerrhi/ Ibrahim Hyderi and Kakapir, Sandspit villages.

On November 24, 2008, the Sindh government inked a cost-sharing agreement with UNDP for Rs172.737 million to construct low cost, energy efficient and earthquake-resistant model houses named after ‘Benazir’ in districts of Badin, Thatta and coastal areas of Karachi.

These houses were handed over to the families whose huts were wiped out by a cyclone in coastal areas of Thatta and Badin districts. Each of the housing unit comprises two rooms, a kitchen, a WC, and 10-ft. courtyard. But the allotees of these houses have expressed dissatisfaction over the size, design and the inferior quality of construction material used.

“The two-room houses have developed cracks and fissures in walls and roofs because poor quality construction material has been used. While this size of the room --10 by 12- is too small,” informed a Thatta-based beneficiary to this scribe during a visit to the project site in Jhati. Bathrooms have been built in front of the two-room units which is not in conformity with local social and cultural customs. Moreover they are too narrow, he complained.

An UNDP’s official confirmed about the complaints regarding the poor construction material. “But we are trying to address such problems.” he informed.

In upper Sindh, the provincial government is implementing a 200 low-cost housing units project at Khairpur, Sukkur, Larkana, Shikarpur and Jacobabad.

The Sindh government signed a Rs50.400 million agreement with the Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) in February 2009 for construction of the 200 low-cost houses in union councils of five districts, according to provincial government officials.

Under this pilot project, 40 houses of two-room units, each costing Rs252,000, are being constructed, in each district for those families, which have scored zero on Poverty Score Card - a poverty measuring tool -, and whose makeshift dwellings were hit by any natural disaster, informed Dr Ghulam Rasool, regional manager of SRSO.

In Shikarpur, Kashmore-Kandhkot districts another 5,000 two-room houses are being built under the Union Council-based Poverty Reduction Programme of the provincial government in collaboration with SRSO.

According to the Planning and Development officials, Rs60,000 will be provided to each deserving household for the construction of a housing unit, while members of eligible household would provide labour for construction.. The small housing unit will consist of one 14ft x18 ft room, one kitchen, one bathroom and a courtyard.

Giving details of the 5,000 low-cost housing unit project, Dr Samejo told this scribe that the villages of Shikarpur and Kashmore-Kandhkot districts in upper Sindh having 80 per cent shelter-less households will benefit from this project.

Some 30 housing units have been built in Shikarpur, and the construction work on another 200 is going on for which an amount of Rs1.08 million has been disbursed by the provincial government, he added.


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