Orangi Pilot Project

The Orangi Pilot Project (; abbreviated OPP) collectively designates three Pakistani non-governmental organisations working together, having emerged from a socially innovative project carried out in 1980s in the squatter areas of Orangi, Karachi, Pakistan. It was initiated by Akhtar Hameed Khan, a North Indian muhajir from Uttar Pradesh, and implemented by Perween Rahman, a Bihari from Bangladesh and involved the local residents solving their own sanitation problems. Innovative methods were used to provide adequate low cost sanitation, health, housing and microfinance facilities. Currently OPP designates three organisations, born out of the original OPP in 1989 OPP-RTI (Research and Training Institute), OPP-OCT (Orangi Charitable Trust, involved in microfinance) and OPP-KHASDA (Karachi Health and Social Development Association, involved in health activities). A fourth organisation, OPP-RDT (Rural Development Trust) was merged with OPP-RTI in 2012. The project also comprised a number of programmes, including a people's financed and managed low-cost sanitation programme; a housing programme; a basic health and family planning programme; a programme of supervised credit for small family enterprise units; an education programme; and a rural development programme in the nearby villages. Today, the project encompasses much more than the neighbourhood level problems. The research and development programmes under the institutions developed by the project now cover wider issues related to the areas all over Karachi. Its director until 2013 was Perween Rahman, who was murdered on 13 March 2013. Orangi was a squatter community, and did not qualify for government aid due to their "unofficial" status. With endogenous research, the community was able to make an affordable sanitation system for the treatment of sewage, which helped to reduce the spread of disease. The system was created and paid for by the local community, who would not have had access to a sewer system otherwise.