Coastal villagers get clean drinking water

The inhabitants of several coastal villages near Mubarak Village, some 42 kilometres from the heart of Karachi, were overwhelmed with joy when a solar-powered water filtration plant, installed with the efforts of the Karachi director health, started producing clean drinking water on Saturday.

Having the capacity of producing 5,000 liters of clean drinking water per day, the solar-powered water filtration plant with a huge pond to collect the rainwater was installed with the efforts of Director Health Karachi Dr Akram Sultan, who convinced some philanthropists and the office-bearers of Rotary Club to finance the project and make it a reality.

“For the first time in our lives, our women and children are drinking clean water free of charge. Earlier, we used to buy clean drink water or drink from the pond, which is used to quench the thirst of both humans and animals,” said Azad Jokhio, an elder of Muhammad Allu Goth near Mubarak Village, Hawksbay, while talking to newsmen.

Speakng with journalists, Dr Akram Sultan said he approached philanthropists of Karachi, especially Asif Idrees, a local businessman who is helping the inhabitants of coastal villages in getting clean drinking water, education and health facilities, while Rotary Club provided the grant and technical to install the filter plant.

The filtration plant was formally inaugurated by Aziz Memon, Trustee of the Rotary Foundation along with Rotary Club’s District Governor Aftab Imam, Asher Ali, Muhammad Dawood, and Asif Idrees in addition to a large number of villagers from the coastal area.

“People of this coastal area had been thirsty for centuries despite being in front of the sea. There was no source of clean drinking water in the area, but due to efforts of several people, especially Rotary Club office-bearers, people of this area are now being able to drink clean water without making effort,” Memon said.

Local businessman Asif Idrees said around one hundred thousand people in the coastal villages around Mubarak Village needed facilities of clean drinking water, sanitation, education and most importantly health facilities as they had to travel to 30-40 kilometres to seek medical help.

“We are trying to provide clean drinking water with the help of Rotary Club and other organisations to the people of this area, but they also need other facilities like health services. Hundreds of people, especially women and children die due to lack of health facilities in the area,” Asif Idrees said.

He maintained that if the government posted a gynecologist to the area, they would provide her free of charge residence and other facilities as dozens of women died every month as they could not reach any health facility during pregnancy or at the time of childbirth.