OPP staff teach volunteer students how to make basic maps for the laying of sewage pipes (taken in an OPP office)

Let us look at the activities of another NGO. The Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) began operating in the Orangi district in Karachi. Orangi is an informal settlement built by private firms and residents “illegally,” outside the plans of the local administrative authorities. The settlement has now “developed,” and boasts a population of one million. However, as it was developed illegally, Orangi lacked adequate urban infrastructure such as electricity, water and sewage systems. Discovering through rounds of consultations with local residents that the most urgent issue there was the improvement of sanitary conditions, OPP provided guidance on the laying of sewage pipes to local residents. The residents themselves dug up streets in front of their houses and installed sewage pipes. Eventually, they built a massive sewage system by connecting the pipes they had laid. This became a well-known example of residents themselves taking the initiative in an area normally covered by the administration, and where the results of their efforts made direct dialogue with the local authorities possible. At present, OPP does not confine its activities to just the Orangi twon, but provides consultancy services at the national level, mainly in the area of improving residential environments, to NGOs working in slums across the country or at the request of local governments.

Most of Orangi residents who backed OPP’s early activities by actually participating were Biharis, or people who fled Bangladesh (East Pakistan) and had relatively high educational backgrounds. The leader of OPP, Akhtar Hameed Khan, was well known among Biharis as a figure who had previously developed an effective formula for rural development in Komilla, East Pakistan.