Officiating for the unofficial - WaterAid (sitios de interés)

WaterAid | Officiating for the unofficial

WaterAid is supporting work to facilitate dialogue between government and 'unofficial' slum communities who are undertaking large scale sanitation projects themselves.

The sprawling, unplanned slums that surround the large cities in Pakistan do not qualify for government aid to build sewage systems due to their unofficial status.

In 1996, WaterAid started supporting the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) in constructing and improving sewers in the slums of Karachi. The OPP is a remarkable self-funded, self-administered and self-maintained grassroots movement whose urban poor constituents build hundreds of kilometres of extremely low cost underground sewers using local materials and labour.

The role of OPP is to facilitate dialogue between the city authorities and the communities themselves as well as to provide training and technical guidance.

(c) WaterAid 2008