KARACHI, Oct 31: A stormwater drain filled with garbage in Mohammedi Colony off Mauripur Road in UC-5 of Keamari Town is posing serious threat to the lives of people in the colony.

The stormwater drain, known as Kalri Nullah, which passes through the colony, discharges untreated sewage into the sea. The drain is now choked up with garbage as it has not been cleaned for years, residents say.

Residents fear that if early steps are not taken for cleaning the drain, they would face havoc if there is rain. They say life has already become miserable for them as they have been forced to live in sub-human conditions.

Because of blockage of the drain and high tide in the sea, overflowing sewage from the drain entered their houses and clogged the narrow streets and roads, multiplying their miseries, residents complained.

There is dirt and filth everywhere in the colony whose residents largely comprise low-income groups. Most of them are fish workers and construction labour.

Civic agencies and even the KPT, which claims the ownership of the land, have never paid any serious attention to removing the problems of those living in Mohammedi Colony, once known as Machhar Colony, claiming that: “It is not a regular abadi.”

Even the Kutchi Abadi department do not recognize the colony and consider it reclaimed land of the KPT.

The colony lacks all basic facilities. It has no proper piped water supply. The clogging of the stormwater drain has rendered the sewerage system inoperative.

People get water supply either through private tankers or by illegal connections linked to the main line on Mauripur Road and passing through rubber pipelines via the stormwater drain.

According to a representative of a local NGO, mostly people get contaminated water which is unfit for human consumption.

For long the colony has been without a direct approach road. Because of a railway crossing, that runs along Mauripur Road, people have to take a long route to enter the colony — either through the Fish Harbour or Lyari railway station.

Following persistent demand from the area residents, the authorities have recently began work on a service road along the railway track from Lyari station to provide an approach road.

Situated on the western side of the seashore off Mauripur Road, the colony began springing up in 1970, but it has never been regularized because the majority of residents are Bengalis who are expected to return to Bangladesh.

In the 1980s, workers from the upcountry, particularly from the NWFP and Punjab, had settled in the locality because land was available at cheap prices.