KARACHI, July 29: Bhitai Colony, a locality administered by the Cantonment Board of Korangi Creek, has been flooded with rainwater.
The torrential rain on Monday and the showers on Tuesday raised the water level, turning the roads and lanes into watercourses. Many residents say rainwater has found its way into their homes.
“Water has begun entering our houses,” called a desperate resident from Sector F during the Monday downpour. Introducing himself as a Muslim League worker and shopkeeper, he said the marketplace was also flooded but he was more concerned about his house.
The head of a non-governmental organization, speaking on the phone from the locality’s Sector D said: “Please tell the authorities to have mercy on us. We are paying high taxes but are forced to live in sleazy conditions.”
Streaming streets are impassable for pedestrians in almost all sectors of Bhitai Colony, which has a population of more than 50,000 people. Even taxis and rickshaws dread entering the locality. Men and women trying to reach their workplaces wade through the waist-deep water, mixed with sewage, and reach there with clothes stained and stinking.
Hapless residents have appealed to the governor to take notice of the situation and order immediate relief measures. Since the colony has no representative in the local government, the city government takes no interest in its welfare. Being populated by people with diverse ethnic identities, no political group in power owns it.
Talk to the cantonment executive officer, Zeenat Tahir, and she would shrug off the problem: “We are trying to get rid of this colony. The city government will soon take over it. We don’t have the funds for its development and maintenance.”
The nextdoor Altaf Nagar is not in a better shape. But it has found fathers in the Sindh government recently. That locality, already submerged under sewage, has got some assurances from the authorities, raising their hopes.
Because of the standing dirty water, potable supply in Bhitai Colony has got highly contaminated. And with mosquitoes and flies residents fear an outbreak of epidemics.
If not drained out soon, the rainwater is likely to stay as it is for several months. The task is too hard for the resource- strapped cantonment board. Earlier when it used to get Rs10.6 million in octroi tax annually, it was able to build a few lengths of inside roads besides the routine maintenance. And now remind the CEO of the roads condition and she would roar: “You must be living in a fool’s paradise. The most we can do is focus on water supply and sanitation.”
Cantonment authorities have failed to get the amount that was to be paid by the federal government in lieu of the abolished octroi tax. They are, however, overburdening the residents with new and inflated taxes. They don’t promise any facility. —N.A.
