 Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan, home to 18 million residents, and also the fastest-growing mega-city in the world. This metropolis constitutes 22% of Pakistan's urban population, with a constant influx of migrants seeking jobs from all over the country. It is also the only port city in Pakistan. In 1947, at the time of independence, Karachi was a city of 450,000 people. To the north of it was the seasonal Liyari River, and beyond that to the north, there were extensive fields, orchards and pasturelands. To the east of Liyari was the Maliroasis. Post-independence, Karachi's master plans declared these parts as protected green areas. However, due to large-scale migration from India and other parts of Pakistan, the entire Liyari belt and part of the Maliroasis were converted into formal and informal low- and lower-middle-income housing. The only green areas that have survived along the Liyari Riverbed are the traditional graveyards of the Muslims, Hindus and Jews. The water was used to fill the water. It was used to wash clothes, drink water, and to use the water for the utensils. Here, there was a lot of grass, people used to grow vegetables. But gradually, the population of Karachi has increased, the population of Karachi has increased, and all the savorages of Karachi have been left in the Liyari River. You can see, if the water was running sweet, there would be trees, grass, everything. This expansion of the city into the pastureland of the villages located on the periphery in the Karachi District has continued. And over 150,000 residential plots have been developed here in just the last three years, suffocating what were meant to be Karachi's lungs. We also have a very thriving rural hinterland. Agricultural practices here were very sound, and even till, like in the 1973 master plan, we had a very clear vision of where we wanted to go in terms of expanding the agricultural base and usicating the way so that food security is ensured in Karachi. But then a number of things happened, actually, because of which the agricultural and the rural hinterland in Karachi facing an existential threat. The proportion of agricultural land to built-up land, the agricultural land was four times that of built-up land in 1948, but by 2010, it was 0.4 percent. In 1960, 61 percent of the land in Karachi was cultivable land, but by the year 2000, it was left only 19 percent. So that's a massive reduction in the cultivable land and the cultural land. All these areas are massively extracted for sand and gravel. 318,000 cubic feet of gravel and sand being extracted every day. So it's an enormous amount, and up to 20 feet to 30 feet depth at most places have been extracted. And more alarmingly is the groundwater level that has been going down. It's more than 300 feet now, and that's according to a study recently done by the Department of Geography, University of Karachi. This reduction in the agricultural land also has an implication for climate change, for example, because green spaces act as a very strong resilience factor within the city in combating, for example, extreme heat events and also urban flooding. Because in case of urban flooding, the green spaces within the city act as an infiltration basin. To accommodate Karachi's expanding population, the city sprawled into its rural areas. This was regarded as godsend for the poor, providing them with relatively affordable land on which they could build their houses. But residents here are beginning to feel otherwise. We've been living here since we came here. There are so many buses that you can't find a place for women to walk. We've been standing here for about two hours on the road. We're sitting in the Chinchi area, and the Chinchi people pay for the rent for 30 rupees, up to Nagantak. In the city, we get very close to each other. We get to meet each other in the streets, and I can go and do it in two houses. The kids stay there safe and sound. Now I feel the cost of selling the houses is very low. We used to live in Lalukhet on Karahi, and we used to spend our lives well. We used to get a car for the whole city. We used to drive one car, and then we used to work with two or three kids in Lalukhet. One of our men took 70 rupees and spent it up to 80 rupees. We had to travel for two to three hours. If we live in the city, it's better for us. According to a study done by the Urban Resource Centre in Karachi, the challenges associated with commuting over long distances can be judged from the manner in which more than 2,000 women travel from just three urbanised villages in the north to elite settlements in the south for their livelihoods. They leave home at 6am and don't return till 7 or 8pm, spending around four hours in transit. The commute costs approximately 90 rupees a day, which is roughly equivalent to 50% of rented accommodation in the city centre. To overcome some of the negative aspects of living on the fringe, a new phenomenon is emerging in this rapidly growing city. This is the densification of the old inner city's low-income, formal and informal settlements. Individual homes on small lots are being turned into high-rise apartment blocks, not only changing the lifestyles of the inhabitants, but also the physical form of the city. Punjab Colony exemplifies this trend, where demand for living in the city centre is driving this densification. The land is yours, the land is yours, they spend it on you, they give you 1 plus 3, they pay you the same amount as they do, they invest in you, and they sell the rest to you. This is our land, we have given it to the investors, but even after three years, we haven't been able to complete the land yet. And now that the investors are running away, we have a place in our house. The construction has been done, according to the cantorment board, if they take the money, then the construction is done. Neither is it a triangle, nor is it a design. They have built a shelter for themselves, they have built a tent, we can keep whatever we want. Increasing number of families wish to live within the closer to the city, closer to places of work. And that is what is driving this densification. The private sector has stepped in, informal private sector has stepped in to cater to this demand. Much of this development is informal. In the case of the kachi abadi, it's completely informal. Therefore, these structures are not monitored, they don't follow any rules, regulations of the Karachi Building Control Authority. These high rise buildings are built on very shallow foundations. In an earthquake, they will simply collapse. Rules and regulations related to ventilation, related to light, are not followed. The apartments are becoming smaller and smaller, so that they can become affordable to the people in low income settlements. In the process, you have large families living in one room or two rooms, creating immense congestion. And naturally, when there is such congestion, there are bound to be social problems associated with it. Also, many of these high, not many, but all these high rise buildings that are being built in the kachi abadi have no lifts. So people have to walk up seven floors, six floors. They can stay cooped up in their apartments because it's a difficult process coming, going up and down, especially for elderly people and for children. Janti Pawar is a clerk who lives in a rented flat in the center of the city. The disadvantages of living here are numerous. In spite of this, Pawar and his family prefer these conditions over those associated with living on the city's edge where he might be able to own a house. Clearly, demand for accommodation in the urban center is driving densification. But it's not the only reason. So that is one aspect of densification. The other is that families are multiplying. So what happens is that people built upwards to accommodate their expanding families. These are the two trends that are currently changing the landscape of the informal settlements. In Karachi. Meanwhile, Karachiites are increasingly taking to motorbikes to save travel time and to increase their mobility. According to official figures, the number of motorbikes on the roads increased from 450,000 in 1990 to 500,000 in 2004. The figure has risen to well over 1.4 million in 2013. This increase, however, does not help women as women in Karachi don't ride motorbikes because of cultural constraints and safety issues. The ones who are going to the city are the ones who are going to the city. I come on the motorcycle. It takes 120 hours to get a petrol. It takes half an hour to get there and half an hour to get there. The day I get tired, or I get hit by a car, or I get hit by a muscle missile, it's very difficult to get there. And the day I get scared, I don't have the money to get a petrol, it takes two to two hours to get there. The once attractive proposition of owning land on the informally developed fringes is further at stake with the cost of land having risen from 176 rupees in 1991 to 10,000 rupees per square meter today. This is an increase from almost twice the value of the daily wage then to over 40 times the value of the daily wage for unskilled labour today. Much of Karachi's land use, housing and transport problems could be overcome if the poor lived near their places of work in formerly planned areas. This is not impossible as Karachi has substantial government land both within the city and on the immediate periphery. What has happened over the past several decades is that new satellite schemes had been planned and the poor were actually dispersed with an anticipation that fast moving transportation links would be able to connect them to the places of work especially in the city centre as well as the new industrial locations which were created. The inner city areas were considered to be high priced and high value lands which were apportioned for different types of uses other than low income houses. It is usually believed that lower income settlements will eventually become ill managed and will not have a potential to maintain a certain type of urban morphology, urban performance which is desired by the relatively high end real estate developers. But one thing which has been missing in our policy framework is the possibility of allocating funding, allocating credits for acquiring land. Usually the credit is kept for the construction of properties on land which is already owned by any owner. However we all know that the poor do not have the means to access land without the availability of credit and if various type of instruments are generated in the form of cooperative mechanisms or in certain cases collective low income groups that can in fact provide a very effective mechanism of making inner city lands accessible to the poor. Meanwhile city dwellers are increasingly opposed to this manning mindset that relegates them to the fringes rather than accommodate them closer to the centre. Because of Karachi's rapidly increasing middle class, as well as political conflicts, the issue of land has also become politicised. Political parties have also now been divided along ethnic lines. MQM people relate with the Urdu speaking community. People's party which is a party having a national stature is being associated with the Sindhi community in Karachi. ANP also a national party is being associated with the Pashto speaking community. So that's very unfortunate. Then of course as is being witnessed very clearly now that land is being settled particularly in the peripheral areas of Karachi on ethnic basis and political basis on party basis so of course that also creates a lot of friction and of course when you have that kind of attention that is created then there is of course naturally spill off in the form of violence and crime and killings. There are 13 different land owning agencies in Karachi each with their own bylaws and zoning regulations and with little coordination with each other. Also the government's unwillingness to provide land for additional housing near the city centre or the immediate periphery is prompting existing settlements to develop upwards. The crux of the issue is of the urban poor gaining access to formal housing as 70% of Karachi's population comprises of this social group. You know you cannot do without planning. These things are happening, they are taking shape but they can happen in a planned manner. You have to have an acceptance of this to begin with then you can support it through loans, through new planning rules and regulations that informal developers can follow. We have not made any such attempt so far. We have just let this happen. We have not accepted it nor have we rejected it. The solution of course lies that where state land is available you have low income housing and you support it with loans. Karachi which right now is four towns really distinct cities divided between the rich, the poor, the elite and the middle class. I think it will become a multi-class city and I think we need to do that. A very important factor that would help in the creation of this multi-class city is the circular railway. Where the circular railway intersects with the road network those are the ideal locations for the development of high density low income housing and you have lots of land at these intersections that can be used for this purpose. Karachi cannot expand any further. It has to densify. This is what Karachi needs and this is what is happening although we are not officially catering to that need. Housing demand in Karachi is 80,000 units per year of which the formal sector fulfills only 40%. Traditionally the rest has been provided by the development of individual plots and informal settlements on the city's fringes. Given the rising cost of transport and land this is no longer a viable option. Hence the densification of the inner city informal settlements through the building of high rises will not only increase but will accelerate creating islands of poverty and deprivation in areas of relative affluence. The repercussions of such cross urban inequalities and social and political conflicts which are already taking a violent turn in the city. One of the ways in which a level of equity and justice can be established is by facilitating this densification rather than ignoring it. By utilizing state land within the city for high density low income housing and making it affordable through appropriate fiscal policy. The failure to do this will turn an already divided Karachi into an even more environmentally degraded and poor unfriendly city. Our political and bureaucratic stance towards this issue reflects an anti-poor bias which must be overcome for a sustainable future of peace and prosperity for all.