IN reporting on floods, four terms have been used constantly. They have traditional planning-related meanings, which can no longer be applied to them because of the phenomenon of climate change. These are: ‘master plan’, ‘land use’, ‘encroachment’ and ‘riverbed’.
Formal settlements in Pakistan are designed on land use percentages for different usage and are part of building by-laws and zoning regulations. For instance, KDA regulations allocate 45 per cent of project land for residential accommodation; 25pc for roads; 12pc for commercial use; and the rest for amenities. There is now an increased requirement for open spaces and amenities for health and recreation purposes.
In addition, we will have to work out how much area of the settlement will be needed for drainage purposes. We will have to develop easily applicable formulae to determine this and to apply it to flood conditions. Some methods of supplying informal settlements with design methods and their extension will also be needed to help informal developers design settlements. Right now, they try to copy formal procedures to make future regularisation of their settlements easier.
Another aspect to understand is how informal systems operate. They consist of developers, designers, extension agents and financial collection and management systems. They negotiate with land owners on the purchase and occupation of land. They produce more than half of Pakistan’s housing stock. As such, their needs and systems of production cannot be overlooked; if they are, they will continue to practise in an ad hoc manner. This is an important factor in promoting, regulating or permitting the development of informal settlements.
The mapping of waterways is necessary.
With the emergence of motorbikes, much more land for development has become available for informal housing. The location of housing schemes can now be more distant from city centres because of motorbike outreach.
Much of the floods have been the result of encroachments on waterways that have popped up on the paths of rivers and streams, thus blocking the natural flows. Encroachers are being blamed for this, and there is a consensus that they should be ruthlessly punished. However, these encroachments could not have emerged without the permission or indifference of government servants, politicians, and in many cases, the judiciary. Large schemes have been built in low-lying areas with their support, granted through the paying of bribes. It is also my understanding that it will be next to impossible to remove all such structures because of the scale of encroachment, and the loss of jobs and capital after and during such removal. So this will have to be negotiated through give and take before it can even begin. A proper process will have to be devised for it.
It is true that rivers and waterways have been blocked with devastating results. To plan for the future, the mapping of waterways is necessary along with their tributaries and distributaries. In almost all cases, no such mapping exists, and the plans submitted for approval to local agencies do not relate to them, even if they exist. All future plans for approval must have proper contours so as to define the slope of the land and its distance to a proper water body which can receive the floodwaters. To do this effectively, it becomes necessary to define what constitutes a ‘riverbed’. This is essential because, in view of climate change, the definition must encompass not only the river but its floodplains as well.
Given these co-nsiderations, it be-comes necessary to protect the land between the river and its floodplains, and develop forest, scrub, and alternative agriculture on it. This will reduce land available for real estate development. But this is what we require to create a happier and healthier, physical and social environment.
This loss of land for urban development can be made up by developing higher-density settlements, beyond the floodplains, and for this again, new zoning regulations will have to be developed.
What is being proposed is not easy to do but it will have to be part of a larger legal and institutional arrangement to tackle the flooding issue, and to save Pakistan from recurring devastation. This will also have to become an integral part of academic training so that future planners can carry out relevant research and their teachers can go beyond teaching what they have been taught. In addition, our understanding of the river systems of Pakistan is not enough. We have to relate this understanding to the rivers of India, Kashmir, the Tibet and Afghanistan.
The writer is an architect.
arifhasan37@gmail.com
www.arifhasan.org
Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2025