Karachi residents protest construction over Nehr-i-Khayam channel

Environmentalists and residents from across Karachi gathered at Nehr-i-Khayam in Clifton on Sunday to protest against the construction of a commercial belt along the channel, which they say will narrow a vital storm-water route and put the area at risk of flooding.

Members of the Clifton Block 5 Residents Association, the Clifton Defence Community (CDC) and the Karachi Residents’ Community (District South) held up placards as a digger and a concrete mixer worked behind them, Dawn reported.

“What are you building?”

The placards read: “Violation of Supreme Court orders”, “No food street on Nehr-i-Khayam”, “What are you building? Share the plan publicly”, “Don’t suffocate our waterways” and “Narrow drain equals massive flood”.

“Nehr-i-Khayam is a natural link between the Obhayo Lagoon and the Gizri Creek. You can’t mess up with the marine ecosystem. If you do, you brace yourselves for floods, storms and tsunamis,” said environmentalist Masood Lohar, founder of the Clifton Urban Forest.

Protester Rasha Tarek recalled that the late Dawn columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee had called the channel “one of the major lungs of the Clifton area”, meant “to carry rain and/or tidal water and not sewage into the open sea”.

Residents’ fears

• No information: “We want to know exactly what is being constructed here,” said resident Hummaa Ahmad, noting there was no public project board
• Illegal commercialisation: “You cannot build a dense commercial area in the middle of a dense residential area,” said Sheeraz Qureshi, whose family has lived in Clifton Block 5 for 40 years
• Noise and traffic: Dr Nadia Kiran, who lives overlooking the channel, said residents had heard it would be narrowed and turned into a food street
• Sewage: Humaira Khan of the CDC said untreated waste already flows to the sea through drains such as Nehr-i-Khayam

“Water streams or flowing waterways anywhere should be seen as a gift of nature but sadly we love to encroach upon them,” said CDC president Abdur Rehman, pointing to the Lyari and Malir rivers.

The demands

The protesters, who said the project was announced at Rs500 million, demanded:

• Full disclosure: approved designs, land boundaries, environmental assessments, Sindh Environmental Protection Agency decisions, contracts and spending
• Protection: of the channel’s storm-water capacity and public open space, with no shops or food street on channel land
• Treatment: proper sewage treatment before wastewater reaches the sea
• Scrutiny: an independent review of drainage and environmental impacts, and real public consultation before any further work

A Karachi Metropolitan Corporation spokesperson told Dawn the project was being carried out by the local government department and had nothing to do with the KMC or the mayor.

Why it matters

Protesters say Karachi drowns after even a little rain because channels such as the Lyari and Malir rivers have been squeezed by construction. They are asking a simple question: what is being built, and will the city’s drainage survive it? Read our report on Manchar Lake’s toxic effluents, another water crisis in Sindh.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn.