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PAKISTAN-ENVIRONMENT-LIFESTYLE-HOME,FEATURE
In Pakistani village, home is where the cave is
NIKKO, HASAN ABDAL, Pakistan, Nov 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Bomb-proof,
earthquake-resistant and cheap: thousands of Pakistanis are choosing to
hunker down in caves northwest of Islamabad, snapping up the hobbit-like
homes amid a nationwide housing shortage.
Located around 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Pakistan’s capital, nearly
3,000 people live in caves in the village of Hasan Abdal, according to
councilor Haji Abdul Rasheed — whose own home is among the dwellings carved
into the rugged, earthen hillside embankments.
Rasheed’s spartan cave — or “buray” as it is locally known — consists of
a few minimally furnished rooms complemented by a breezy veranda.
The caves are usually dug by hand, with residents using clay to plaster
the walls — a practice which serves as a bulwark against landslides, they
say.
“There is nothing like it. If you build a mud house, it collapses during
the rains. This does not collapse,” says Rasheed.
“It’s earthquake-proof and bomb-proof.”
Although locals have been living in caves for at least five centuries since
the area was settled by a Mughal tribe, a surge in housing prices has renewed
the appetite for the cavernous homes, which cost much less than their urban
counterparts.
“We bought this because it’s cheaper… we dug it ourselves,” says resident
Ameer Ullah Khan.
The modern-day cave dwellers also recommend the structures as ideally
suited to Pakistan’s weather — staying cool as summertime temperature soar
past 40 degrees Celsius and providing a warm cocoon during the area’s chilly
winters.
“We mostly spend our summers here… using the caves as our residence and
to store our belongings, including our wheat and corn harvest,” says Muhammad
Sohail, who lives elsewhere the rest of the year.
Life is not all easy however: lacking sufficient natural light, the caves
rely on electricity cabled in from outside to power TV sets and mobile
phones, while indoor plumbing is a rare luxury.
But with cave prices averaging around about 40,000 rupees ($300) compared
to brick homes that start around 250,000 rupees, locals and property experts
say they are much more affordable than other rural options.
“Even in the countryside, you need at least half a million rupees to get a
small piece of land to build a house,” real estate agent Sakhi Riaz told AFP.
The lower costs have allowed some residents to splurge on extras, from rose
gardens to terraced fruit orchards.
One local ‘godman’ has even gone so far as to build an huge residential
complex to host hundreds of devotees who flock to the area for religious
festivities.
The humble abodes are seen as an increasingly attractive option as Pakistan
battles a dearth of affordable housing, with the country’s rapidly growing
population hovering around 207 million.
Freshly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan has vowed to address the crisis
by building as many as five million new homes even as an ongoing financial
crisis has raised questions about how he will pay for it.
BSS/AFP/RY/17:20 hrs