Abstract
One of the most important dilemmas of the growing city of Karachi is access to green spaces for a large majority of the population. Over-crowding and congestion has made it hard for the common people to connect with open spaces, gardens and landscape areas. As a result, they are unable to resolve their health, nutrition and hygiene issues. This study considers the various options for community greening in the developing world. More particularly, Karachi is focused for managing and promoting community betterment, health and hygiene through community-level organic farming. Sultanabad and Hijrat Colony, two low-income neighborhoods in Karachi have been used as case studies to enable an analysis of the problems of community greening and composting and its solutions. The aim of this study was to explore the practice of community-level composting out of organic waste, along with urban gardening in the developing world through a case study of Karachi. A review on narrative literature as well as a live project at Sultanabad was conducted consecutively in order to achieve this. The literature review revealed that community-level composting combined with urban gardening is the most effective and valuable technique available for the management of organic waste. Furthermore, it was found that this technique could play a positive role in terms of easing the financial and administrative burden on municipalities as well as in terms of building community income resources. Ultimately, this would not only save money of the low income group rather it would generate source of income for them. The case study of Karachi, however, revealed a number of threats to composting and urban gardening including: illiteracy, water shortage, extreme weather events, an unregulated waste economy, and land availability. Lastly, it was found that community-level composting and urban gardening facilitates a number of significant problems of the city, including those related to food and income levels. This study therefore argues for the case of community-level composting and community gardening as an important means of generating food and income within the communities in Karachi.