aadils.computer

gujjar nullah

  • I’m at Gujjar Nala in Liaqatabad. This entire area is treacherous to walk. There are no barriers along the entire length of the nala. I have to take care not slip myself.

    Kids live here. This is their backyard. People walk here. Injuries and deaths are waiting to happen.

    The nala is now right at the doorstep of people’s homes. It has tripled in size since I’ve last been here. The road that the govt has planned is yet to be built.

    This will require a fresh wave of demolitions. Thousands of homes which are not accounted for in the compensation process.

    While we were doing door-to-door surveys, I asked some residents about these giant pipes that were snaking through the narrow walking path alongside the nala. The residents told me that they were installed by armed forces (or their contractors) to siphon water from the water hydrants in the nullah, allegedly to sell for profit.

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  • Today I went with some friends to the Gujjar Nala for a door-to-door survey activity. Our goal was to interview resident and document the legal status and condition of the homes before their imminent demolition.

    The operation is being carried out in response to catastrophic flooding that took place in August 2020. The government believes the flooding was caused by informal settlements “encroaching” on Karachi’s storm water drains.

    Children jumping on a trampoline in front of the wreckage of their homes
    An elderly Gujjar nala resident questions where he is supposed to relocate to in his old age, and asks why he and his family are being displaced after he has faithfully paid his bills for years?
    For anyone who’s seen the nala in person, it’s immediately clear that the cause of the flooding is the garbage choking it and not the homes adjacent to it.
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  • In the vicinity of Gujjar Nala, loudspeaker announcements inform residents to vacate homes built on the drain by 7:00 am tomorrow morning as the said construction will thereafter be razed to clear the drain path.

    This is the purest, most distilled form of climate injustice I’ve ever seen.

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