Irfan Shahzad
KARACHI, Oct 2 2007 (IPS) – Unlike his neighbours in the opposite lane, Muhammad Salam lets his children play out in the street without the slightest worry.
That is because Salam, a resident of Ghaziabad locality in the big Orangi informal settlement in this port city, is happy for the concrete paving along the street he lives on. Beneath the concrete is a sewerage line that efficiently collects wastewater from all 24 houses in the area.
Not all the streets in this mega slum, however, enjoy the same privilege. Quite a few of the lanes are difficult to pass through due to streams of reeking water, thanks to the lack of an adequate municipal sewage system, a common problem in the cities of this South Asian country.
I have no worries that my kids w…