22 October 2004	Friday	07 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Oct 21: The Gadap Town administration has asked the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board to handover the century-old Damloti wells to the town for its future management and for supplying water to the neighbouring localities as well as making them feasible for irrigating land.

The demand was made by the town nazim in a letter to the KWSB containing various proposals, PPI learnt on Thursday.

At present, there was only one well out of a total of 11 wells operating under the management of the KWSB, which failed to meet the requirements of the local people.

Damloti wells, situated in the jurisdiction of Gadap Town near Murad Memon Goth, were built in the British era. These wells, having a large capacity, were capable of supplying water to the whole of Karachi City.

But since the increase in population, Karachi was started being supplied water from other sources, and these wells were neglected, rendering them unproductive.

Area people believed that the merciless exploitation of sand and gravel from the Malir riverbed was the major cause of decline in underground water-level that had affected these wells.

In this regard, a non-government organisation, 'Shirkatgah' intended to launch studies on the feasibility of the cultivation system in Malir.

The Shirkatgah was focusing on two areas of the country that had been ignored in the past in terms of development in the agricultural system - Cholistan in Punjab and Malir in Karachi.