Orangi Pilot Project (OPP)

The Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) in Karachi, Pakistan, provides a powerful example of negotiation in community-led design. Faced with a severe sanitation crisis in a vast informal settlement, the commission was to co-develop low-cost, community-managed sewerage systems. Significant friction emerged from municipal authorities' reluctance to service these areas or connect community-built infrastructure. The OPP facilitated a complex negotiation process, starting with internal community agreements on cost and labor for local sewer lines, alongside negotiations with OPP for technical guidance. Empowered by viable self-built systems and OPP’s advocacy, these communities then collectively negotiated with city authorities. They successfully demonstrated their solutions' efficacy, securing connections to municipal trunk sewers and transforming neglect into a highly impactful, largely self-financed sanitation system that could be used as a prototype for other settlements.