Karachi Sponge Park Opens at Jamali Park

The Karachi sponge park has opened at Jamali Park in Gulberg Block 2, an experimental project that turns rainwater from wasted runoff into a resource stored underground.

The park was developed over six months through a public-private partnership involving WWF-Pakistan, Gulberg Town Municipal Corporation and other stakeholders. It aims to tackle three of the city’s chronic problems at once: water scarcity, urban flooding and falling groundwater levels.

The idea is simple. Instead of letting rain flow through drains and into the sea, the park catches it, filters it and stores it underground for future use.

Karachi sponge park stores rain underground

The system uses specially designed landscapes, permeable surfaces and underground filters to capture rainwater, remove impurities and store it for non-drinking uses. It aims to cut the amount of rainwater flowing into conventional drainage systems and eventually reaching the sea.

The park will also reuse ablution water from a nearby mosque. The water will pass through several filtration stages before being used to irrigate plants and trees, reducing the need for freshwater.

The filters were developed locally. They contain layers of gravel, coarse aggregates, sand, silica, activated carbon, biochar and zeolite. Each material does a specific job: gravel and coarse aggregates separate soil and debris, sand and silica trap finer particles, activated carbon and biochar absorb organic and chemical pollutants, and zeolite can reduce certain heavy metals and other contaminants.

After passing through the layers, the water moves to underground storage or drainage systems, depending on the design of each section.

Why Karachi needs to save rainwater

Karachi’s water problem is well known. The city faces shortages through much of the year, yet heavy rain floods its streets each monsoon because the water has nowhere to go.

Naeem Ashraf, director of biodiversity at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, said Pakistan had extensively exploited its underground freshwater reserves through borewells and other extraction methods. The sponge park is meant to reverse part of that damage by putting water back into the ground.

The project is experimental, and its backers will watch how much water it captures and how well the filters hold up over time. If it works, the model could be repeated in other parks across the city, and in other cities facing the same mix of flooding and scarcity.

The climate case for such projects is growing. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has urged COP31 to offer grant-based climate finance and bigger resilience funds, and Pakistan’s push for solar power was also on show at the summit. Small nature-based projects like the sponge park sit beside those big-ticket talks: they are the kind of local work that resilience funding is meant to support.

Lahore was the world’s most polluted city this week as smog settled over Punjab, and climate disasters displace about 1,000 families in Gilgit-Baltistan every year. The sponge park is a small step, but it is a practical one, built in a public park where residents can see it work.

Frequently asked questions

What is a sponge park?

A sponge park uses landscapes, permeable surfaces and underground filters to absorb rainwater, clean it and store it underground, instead of letting it run off into drains.

Where is Pakistan’s first sponge park?

It is at Jamali Park in Gulberg Block 2, Karachi. It was inaugurated as an experimental project.

Who developed the project?

It was developed over six months through a public-private partnership involving WWF-Pakistan, Gulberg Town Municipal Corporation and other stakeholders.

What water does the park reuse?

As well as rainwater, it will reuse ablution water from a nearby mosque, filtering it before using it to irrigate plants and trees.

How do the filters work?

Locally developed underground filters use layers of gravel, coarse aggregates, sand, silica, activated carbon, biochar and zeolite to remove particles, organic matter and certain chemical contaminants.