VIRTUAL Manchester Livable Cities

Abstract

Urban flooding is a resilience challenge across South Asian cities. In Lahore, monsoon spells bring high risks of flooding, largely due to outdated and underperforming drainage systems that paralyze functionality in the city. While Lahore’s approach to managing floods has been largely reactive, recent projectized actions and top-down interventions claim to deliver and reclaim political legitimacy. This research analyzes infrastructural interventions led by the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) – underground rainwater storage tanks – across the city’s flood hotspots, and their perceived performance by urban dwellers. Effectiveness is assessed through reduced surface ponding, shifts in residents’ lived flood risk, and levels of institutional (dis)trust. Focusing on four study locations, the research combines field visits, 132 household surveys, 47 shop vendor interviews, key informant interviews with WASA officials, and ponding reports to compare physical outcomes, community voices, adaptive behaviours, and flood coping strategies. A central question guides this study: Can citizenship be materialized through infrastructure? The Punjab government conceives underground tanks as physical products that will deliver resilience and reclaim political legitimacy. Yet most tanks are being constructed in parks and community grounds without public engagement or consultation. The highly contested Baba Ground in Islampura illustrates this tension. Historically, a recreational and social space hosting cricket tournaments, its excavation for a water tank has disrupted community memory, sports culture, and everyday recreational use. Community testimonials highlight mistrust of government and the absence of inclusivity in the project’s design and implementation. This research argues that flood resilience must be reconceptualized as a negotiated process between communities, their daily experiences, and state-led technocratic interventions.