Livelihood Substitution: The Case of the Lyari Expressway

4. Analysis

4.1 Social and Economic Conditions at the Lyari Settlements

Surveys at the Lyari settlements that are being demolished indicate that they have consolidated. The residents have chosen to come here because of the availability of jobs (since the area is next to major industrial zones); be near to relatives and to social sector facilities. Over the years they have formed community organisations, political affinities, linkages with the local power structure and with commercial organisations. As a result, they have been able to get assistance in getting jobs, negotiate freedom from police harassment, resolve of their family and neighbourhood disputes through the mediation of local organisations, get loans in time of need and purchase household items on credit from neighbourhood shops.

The industrial and commercial units in the settlements have also consolidated. They have a fair degree of affluence and easy accessibility to the markets (they are nearby). Labour, both skilled and unskilled, is available in the settlements or in nearby areas. There is a close link between them and their labour force and also between them and their suppliers and purchasers. These links have been established over a long period of time.

In addition to the social and economic aspects, a very big majority of the residents of the Lyari settlements have acquired utility connections for gas, electricity, water and sewage. Many of them have telephone connections and those who do not either use mobile phones or have easy access to neighbourhood public call offices. The utility connections are legal and have been acquired incrementally over a long period of time. Big investments have gone into acquiring them. Water and sewage networks have often been built by funding from elected councillors (after considerable lobbying by area activists) as part of Annual Development Plans and in many cases they have been built by the communities coming together to collect money and build their own networks.

However, the houses and commercial units below the flood line cannot be regularised under law. As such, these units would always be considered un-authorised. According to URC and community surveys, 50 per cent of the affectees live below the flood line.

4.2 The Most Affected Assets

The surveys indicate that the most affected assets are social and economic and that there is a close link between the two. Most of the respondents have lived in their settlements for two or more generations. They have grown up as children together and their parents know each other. Strong support systems related to school admissions for children, family and neighbourhood conflict resolutions, lobbying for services, seeking employment, have developed. In the relocation settlements this long process has to be repeated. People (who are now strangers) have to get to know each other all over again. They have to re-establish a bond born out of group initiatives, suffering and successes. The breaking of these bonds has made the respondents in the new settlements extremely vulnerable. They have lost their political power and their negotiating advantages. Social functions and get-togethers too will have to be recreated.

The second major damage is economic. The value of their new properties is a fraction of the value of their properties in the Lyari Corridor. Investments made by them in acquiring utility connections and building their homes have been demolished. They have to invest in them all over again. Jobs are not available in the relocation settlement or near them since they are far from job markets. As a result, the number of persons working per family has decreased. Credit from shopkeepers for the purchase of household items is no longer available. In addition, transport costs have increased manifolds and so have travelling time to markets, social events, jobs and educational institutions. All these factors have led to a decline in usable earnings and as such nutrition and children’s education has been adversely affected. In addition, in the process of moving from the Lyari Corridor to the relocation site people became jobless for different periods of time and children’s education could not be continued resulting not only in financial loss but also in considerable physiological and emotional trauma.

The third major damage is the absence of physical and social sector utilities and facilities at the relocation sites. The inconvenience of getting water by tanker; the absence of gas for cooking and underground sewage; managing solid waste disposal oneself; are acutely felt for they were all available at the previous settlement. There is very little hope that gas, water or solid waste disposal systems will be established in less than five to ten years. Similarly, the absence of schools and especially health facilities is acutely felt as they were all available previously.

However, those families that lived below the flood line are now legal owners of the homes they are building in the resettlement locations. This is something that they could never have acquired if they had continued living in the Lyari Corridor, given the existing laws in Pakistan.

The vulnerability of the commercial units has also increased. Most fear bankruptcy, financial loss, difficulty in access to raw material and labour and loss of utility connections which are essential for their functioning. They also feel that it will not be possible for much of their old labour to work for them. They will have to establish relations with a new work force all over again. Labour costs will also increase since their old labour use to walk to work and much of it now uses public transport. Relationship with suppliers will also undergo a change. Their old suppliers are far away from them and maybe new suppliers will have to be identified until suppliers emerge in the resettlement locations.

Most of the commercial and industrial units that are being demolished are considered as illegal. However, they are not being given plots of land or Rs 50,000 compensation like the residential units are. Surveys indicate that many of them will shift to the nearby settlements densifying already densified areas.

5. Survey Weaknesses and Anomalies

Through the relocation process people living in areas that could not be regularised under law have now become legal land and house owners. The survey has failed to capture how important this is for the respondents. Do they consider having become legal house owners as more important than the suffering and loss of assets that they have had to undergo as a result of eviction? This is an important aspect and needs consideration. It would also have been interesting to know what option people would have preferred for getting a plot of land.

The survey indicates that a number of job categories have been lost due to shifting such as kabari (waste dealer), taxi driver, polisher, educator, painter etc. The reason for the loss of these jobs would make us understand the problems of commercial development in the relocation settlement and perhaps find ways to address them. Similarly, women have continued to be domestic workers at the relocation settlement as they were in the Lyari Corridor. It is important to know whether they still go to their old employers or have found new ones.