Monsoon woes aggravated by poor housing

Rubina Bibi, 35, has not been able to go to work at the bungalow where she is employed as a cleaner since the morning of 12 August. "The rain began falling really hard just as I was starting out yesterday morning. The lane outside my house filled within minutes, making it impossible to walk out on foot," she told IRIN.

Since then, water has inundated her house in a shanty town in Lahore and she and her three children have been busy bailing out the water using tins, pans and buckets.

"I cannot leave with my house in this state, even though I will lose a day's wages," says Rubina, a widow who supports her children on an income of Rs 3,500 (about US$50) a month.

Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's Punjab Province, was hit by record rainfall on 12 August. The 168 millimetres that fell was the heaviest recorded in the city in 20 years, according to the local metrological office.

The monsoon rains left at least 12 people dead across the country, according to The News newspaper. Four died in the Punjab city of Faisalabad, 117km southwest of Lahore, including two children who were killed when the roofs of their homes collapsed.

Eight members of a family died in Charsadda in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) when the roof of a house collapsed killing a couple and their six daughters, local media reported. Hundreds were displaced in the NWFP by floods caused by rain earlier this month. Such incidents are not unusual in Pakistan during the monsoon.

Shanty towns

According to the Karachi-based Urban Resource Centre, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working for housing rights, the problem is aggravated by the fact that 50 percent of Karachi residents live in shanty towns.

This also holds true for Lahore and other cities where many houses are built of unbaked bricks, poor-quality construction materials and sometimes even wooden planks or canvas.

"Most structures in shanty towns are poorly constructed, unsafe and at risk of a collapse especially in hostile weather," architect Ahmed Parvez told IRIN.

Housing experts such as Ahmed Tasneem Siddiqui, a former bureaucrat who has won international awards for his work in shanty towns, have warned that housing conditions for the urban poor have “worsened” over the years, and that the government has “abandoned its duty” of providing adequate housing for low income groups.

“I was terrified when limestone and a few chunks of concrete fell from the roof of our home, and I took my children and wife outdoors despite the rain. But, thank God, the roof held," said Anwar Ahmed, an impoverished labourer who also lives in a shanty town.

kh/at/cb