The well is drying up, and there’s no water connection!

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KARACHI – The sun starts rising from the east and a noisy locomotive passes by, leaving behind a trail of smoke; a few factory workers are on their way to the nearby fertiliser factory and a group of young women carrying pitchers on their heads move towards a well to fetch water.
This is not a scene from a small, remote village of Thar Desert where the river water has never been able to reach and where the underground water level is too low, but this scene could be witnessed every day outside the Goth Pir Bux Kalamati, a traditional hamlet located on the Thatta-bound National Highway in the outskirts of Karachi near the Ghaghar Phatak area.
Though there are dozens of small settlements, traditional villages of indigenous fisherfolk and farmers that have existed since the last several centuries are still without proper water supply schemes. As usual, the womenfolk are the worst victims of such a scenario since besides looking after their families, cooking and cleaning of the house, they have to fetch water for daily use.
The women of Goth Pir Bux Kalamati have to walk three kilometres twice a day to bring water from the centuries-old well that is drying up. “The population is increasing and the well is going dry, so we have to sometimes wait a long time to fetch water,” said Zulekha.
A housewife in her early 30s, she recalls the stories that she had heard from her grandmother, who used to say that Kalachi (the old name of Karachi) was a small fisherfolk hamlet, the well was full of water, and the villagers, majority of whom were farmers, were glad to receive lots of water for their agricultural lands. Though the village is two kilometres away from the main highway, some influentials have recently occupied vast areas and started constructing houses, but the village is still unable to receive water supply connections.
An independent estimation states that there are more than 150 fisherfolk settlements and over 200 traditional villages of indigenous people along the 129km Karachi coast that are still deprived of basic facilities, such as school, healthcare, electricity and, most importantly, potable water connections.
“It doesn’t feel like we are living in Pakistan’s biggest city of Karachi. Instead, we feel like we’re living in a small, remote village of Thar Desert with no basic facilities,” said Haji Sukkur Kalamati. Freshwater sources such as the Malir River and traditional wells have dried up long ago, and the increasing population of these villages, majority of whom are very poor, are unable to acquire water.
“We can pay for water, but no water tanker owner is willing to come to our village because we are living outside the city centre,” said Kalamati.
In the absence of proper sources of potable water, most residents consume contaminated water from nearby available sources, which causes abdominal diseases, renal failure and, as usual, women and children are the worst victims.
Residents of some settlements like Ibrahim Hyderi, where potable water connections are available but the water mafia is operating private water tankers and depriving their areas of their water share, usually take to the streets to protest against water shortage, but Goth Pir Bux Kalamati does not even have any water connections.
Most residents of this village claimed that certain union councils and towns administrators, especially those representing the city’s suburbs, were depriving them of basic facilities.
Traditionally, the residents of these villages have remained supporters of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and when the party came into power, the villagers hoped that this time they would get water connections, but they remain disappointed.
“There are several factories in the area, which receive bulk water for industrial use, but the government never gave us any importance. Being PPP voters, we demand the party leadership to take the issue seriously and provide us with water,” said the elderly Hussain Kalamati