KARACHI, Oct 10: Speakers at a memorial function said on Tuesday
that five cities of the county were carrying out development projects on
the pattern of the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP).
Speaking at the
First Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan Development Forum, organized in connection
with the death anniversary of the noted social worker, they said that
Orangi's development programme was being replicated by NGOs and CBOs in
four cities, while a municipal committee was carrying it out in the fifth.
They said that development programmes based on Dr Khan's
principles - that the programmes should not involve large funds, expensive
imported expertise, and be indigenous - were being implemented in
countries such as South Africa, Central Asia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India,
etc.
Speakers at the memorial function said that the OPP's
research and training institute (RTI) also received training groups not
only from these countries but also from the Philippines, Cambodia,
Vietnam, Japan and other countries.
They regretted the fact that a
majority of the professionals had become materialistic and did not feel
committed to communities. They suggested that social work and
character-building subjects be included in the curriculum of primary
schools and institutes providing professional education.
It was
also mentioned that under the OPP, over 91,904 (roughly 95 per cent)
households had invested over Rs80 million on internal development and had
laid 6,108 lane sewers, 409 secondary sewers and also constructed over
90,000 latrines in Orangi, which is the largest kutchi abadi with a
population of 1.2 million.
The Speakers said that the programme
had extended from the land level to the city level and in 1999, the Sindh
government rejected an ADB loan of $100 million for the Korangi Sewerage
Project after an alternative was presented by the OPP-RTI and other NGOs.
Besides this low-cost sanitation programme, other programmes such
as the Low Cost Housing Programme, Education Programme, Karachi Health and
Social Development Association and Orangi Charitable Trust, were also
initiated by the OPP in Orangi.
The speakers named Faisalabad and
Rawalpindi as two of the five cities in which the development projects had
been initiated.
The listeners were told that Dr Akhtar Hameed
Khan, the founder of the concept around which the project was based, had
joined the Indian Civil Service in 1936, but resigned nine years later as
he felt that by being a part of the colonial system, he could not solve
the problems of the poor who sought his help.
He worked as a
locksmith and a labourer for a couple of years to get first hand
information of the problems of the lower class, then shifted to East
Pakistan and started Comilla Cooperatives. Later, he moved to West
Pakistan in the early 70s.
Five groups on The OPP model: potential
and constraints, role of professionals in development of disadvantaged
settlements, NGO development paradigm: strengths and weaknesses, human
settlements and city planning, development through foreign aid and its
implications were formed to discuss issues and give recommendations.
Tasneem Ahmad Siddiqui, Arif Hasan, Shoaib Sultan Khan, Reza Ali,
S. Akber Zaidi, Anwer Rashid, Ely Ercelawn, Nawab Ali, Prof S. Farooq,
Gulbaz Afaqi, Saher Alam, Rozina Saleem, Aqeela Ismail and others also
addressed the gathering. Messages by Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain of the
Centre of Science and Environment, New Delhi, were also read out on the
occasion.
