Orangi, an unauthorized settlement in Karachi, Pakistan, extending over 8,000 hectares, is home to over a million people. Most people built their own houses, receiving no official help in doing so, and as a result sanitation was haphazard and insufficient. Bucket latrines were emptied onto the unpaved lanes running between houses, while self-made sewage pipes poured into nearby creeks. Local residents were fully aware that poor sanitation was ruining their health and their property, but had given up on official promises to install a sewage system. The cost of installing a conventional system themselves was too high, and they didn’t have the technical and organizational skills to use alternative options.
Source: New Scientist, May 2000 and City Press, Karachi.
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