A Case study of the Urban Basic Services Programme in Sukkur, Sindh Province, Pakistan

Executive Summary

The large demand-supply gap in the housing sector in Pakistan has led the creation or unserviced or under-services squatter settlements or katchi abadis. It is estimated that over 40 percent of Pakistan’s urban population lives in these settlements which grow at a rate of about 9 percent per year against an overall urban growth of 4.8 percent.

To address the health issues of women and children in these low income settlements, the UNICEF initiated its Urban Basic Services (UBS) Programme in Sindh province in 1988. One of the Project Areas chosen for the Programme consists of three katchi abadis in Sukkur (a town of about 500,000 population) on the Indus River. The Project Area consists of a population of about 30,000 and its social indicators were well below the levels of urban Sindh.

As part of its program me, the UNICEF decided to replicate the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) model in the Project Area. The OPP is an NGO working in Orangi, the largest informal settlement in Karachi and Pakistan, since 1980. The OPP has motivated the Orangi residents and provided them with technical assistance to finance, manage the construction of and maintain their neighborhood sanitation system consisting of sanitary latrines and underground sewers. The sanitation system, along with health education, has lowered infant mortality rates from 130 per thousand in 1984 to 37 in 1991 and similar decrease in morbidity rates has taken place. In the OPP model, the neighborhood infrastructure is referred to as internal development and financing and building it is the responsibility of the community; and the disposal works and trunk sewers are referred to as external infrastructure, and are the responsibility of state agencies.

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