Grundfos Foundation gives grant to the OPP
The Grundfos Foundation has announced it is to support the incredible work of the Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi over the next three years. The OPP is where Perween Rahman worked, and is now chaired by her sister Aquila Ismail, both of whom are the central characters of Into Dust. The OPP is three autonomous institutions built on five basic programs of low cost sanitation, housing, health, education and credit for micro enterprise.
The first self-built model, the Low Cost Sanitation Model, evolved from intense research and dialogue with the residents, led by Architect Perween Rahman who joined OPP in 1982. Orangi residents were provided the complete design with details of quantity of material and estimation of cost based on local market rates. The community mobilized to collect the money required to procure pipes, bricks, cement etc., and in actually digging trenches, laying the lines, constructing manholes and ultimately connecting the indoor latrines to the disposal pipes.
The lane, with an average of 20 houses, became the unit of organization in constructing the primary system. While working on the primary system, OPP also facilitated the residents in lobbying with the government to enable the lane to be connected to the secondary disposal lines, mains and treatment plants. OPP provided the government low-cost designs of secondary and mains for the construction around Orangi.
Today its approach is to encourage and strengthen community initiatives and evolve partnerships with the government for development based on local resource.
