Daily Times

KARACHI: Situated at around 35 km away from the provincial capital in Kemari along with River Hub, Khaliq’s slum village Noor Muhammad is deprived of drinking water since its existence.

The settlement, with the population of around 1,000 people is also the city’s largest garbage dumping ground. For Muhammad Khaliq, recently held local government elections means a ray of hope that his village will get clean drinking water.

Poorest of the poor population of Noor Muhammad Village, the main occupation of the people is to collect useable and recycle-able items from the garbage and litter to earn money.

The villagers have no water connection like most of the villages in the metropolitan. The entire population of the village was forced to purchase water from tanker service for which, according to locals is very expensive.

“We have to purchase water which is very expensive. A full tanker is available at Rs 3,000 sufficient for my family for a month. This is very unbearable on my financial pocket,” said Khaliq, an area social worker.

“Water is available to other nearby villages but not for us. Since drinking water is number one issue of our village, it naturally remained number one demand from contestants for our votes in local government elections. This is our appeal to our newly-elected local government representatives and other authorities concerned that we should be provided pipe water connections. We are in proximity to River Hub, which supplies water to Karachi. Water is available to nearby villages therefore we should be equally treated like other Karachiites,” said Khaliq.

With poor water infrastructure, the city is getting approximately half of the water it needs to sustain itself daily. According to Karachi Water and Sewage Board (KWSB), the current supply of water to the city stands around 550 millions of gallons per day (MGD), whereas the actual demand is in excess of 1,100 MGD.

But for another resident of the locality, Ghulam Hussain Zangejo, 47, the construction of concrete water tanks means the improved health.

Earlier, all area people had to spent their life in hutments and by 2010, a non-governmental organisation – Health And Nutrition Development Society (HANDS) provided a concrete house scheme.

Besides constructing 133 houses, HANDS provided concrete covered water tanks in each of the unit with the provision of hand pumps.

“Earlier, our houses were not cement-built so was the case with water tanks. Due to open water tanks, water was not safe to drink which resulted many waterborne diseases. Not only children but also elders were facing health problems such as dysentery and hepatitis. Now as the tank is covered, the water has become safe. Earlier, we used to face problems in rains when rainwater along with dirt and soiled water entered water tanks, but we have got rid of such menace,” said Zangejo.