VARIOUS reasons have been given by different agencies for why buildings collapse in Karachi. The blame is placed on the non-functioning of government agencies and the individuals in charge.

However, the reasons are more basic and tragedies happen simply because the government does not provide affordable housing for lower-income groups and so they opt for whatever is possible and what the informal sector can develop.

Tens of thousands of plots are occupied by the poor by paying bribes to the police and the agencies who own the land. These plots vary from 45 to 120 square yards in size. They are usually located on the fringe of the city or in ecologically unsafe areas, such as the flood plains of Karachi nullahs and even under high-tensile wires which are dangerous to health by law, no habitation is allowed under them. LEAs and the police are both complicit in this process. To drive maximum benefit, these settlements contain no social amenities and their streets can be as narrow as two metres. The poor who buy these plots build their homes incrementally by paying large bribes to the police and government agencies.

At some stage of development, an informal developer arrives on the scene. He makes a proposal to the owner: he says that he will give the owner something like Rs400,000 if he gives him permission to build apartments on the plots. If he does, he will also give the owner two apartments on the top floor. The owner is happy because he makes a lot of money in the process. The top floor apartments are usually used by the owner for his own living.

He has never had a pukkah residence for his own use before. An agreement takes place between the two on a stamped paper which, under the law, has no validity. The building that is built has no plans and no structural details and can be as high as seven floors. The foundation is almost nonexistent and the building is built of substandard, undersized concrete blocks, since the developer wants maximum benefit from land.

There are no bylaws and zoning regulations or, for that matter, structural considerations which apply to this construction.

Much of Karachi`s new and old poor settlements have been built in this manner, and the role of building bylaws and zoning emerged much later. Such constructions can be anything between four to eight floors. Substandard katchi abadi homes are also built by the residents themselves for their expanding families or for letting out on rent. But this was a later phenomenon, and for most such constructions, the Sindh Building Control Authority moved in tocheck very basic rules and regulations, and much of this was condoned by the regulating authorities.

Today, many informal developers have become quite `formal`, and they prepare sophisticated plans and agreements (legally invalid) between the owner of the house and the builder. This has become a sort of `policy` that is respected among all the players in the game.

Some years ago, the Supreme Court took cognisance of the matter and ordered that all illegal buildings be demolished. As a result, one seven-storey building was demolished. However, after that demolition, the process of razing illegal buildings was stopped, maybe because the scale of demolition would have been so large and the displacement of communities so enormous that it could not have been managed by the state agencies. An attempt at it would have resulted in political backlash that no government could have survived.

There are two issues involved in a solution to the issue of building collapse inKarachi: one is providing homes for the poor and the second is improving the safety of the existing buildings. Various studies on the subject have shown that most of the poor can afford up to Rs500,000 in instalments for financing a home for themselves. The additional amount requiredcan be provided by the government as a loan for 15 years. However, the problem of providing land at an easily accessible place remains a problem and must be resolved if we are to provide homes to lowincome communities. This also requires a land audit so that such places can be identified and delivered to the relevant agencies for low-income settlements. This is not an easy task, but with a strong critical will, it can be achieved. Retrofitting existing homes for safety is a more complex affair.

It requires the formation of a group of 10 to 12 houses to work in tandem with formal or informal engineering support groups who can advise on how retrofitting can be done. Engineering students can be involved in the process as part of engineering courses. For both these solutions to work, a new culture would have to be developed, just as Akhtar Hameed Khan did for Orangi. • The wnter is an architect.

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