KARACHI, Jan 4: Around 70 per cent of the Keamari Town population lives in abject poverty and most of its old localities are yet to be regularised, a survey of the town shows.

The town, carved out from the defunct district west, comprises coastal and rural areas mainly comprising katchi abadis.

Some of the oldest localities yet to be regularised are Mohammadi Colony, Mauripur, Grex, Muwach Goth and Raees Goth whereas a large number of old localities are stretched all along the Hawkesbay road. Quite a few of these localities have water, power, gas, sewerage and municipal services available to their poor residents.

Mohammadi Colony, located in the periphery of the Karachi Fish Harbour on the main Mauripur Road, has existed for more than 30 years and yet it is without a proper water and drainage system.

Residents of the colony have long been demanding basic amenities to be provided to them, saying that the absence of a proper sewerage system and municipal service, filth, dirt and garbage remain unattended, creating dangerously unhygienic conditions in and around the colony.

Heaps of garbage and filth in the streets have created stinking atmosphere making living in the locality unbearable.

Samiul Haq, a school teacher who lives in the colony, recalled that labourers and fishermen had raised the structures with their hard-earned money to provide shelter to their families but the people in power never extended any help in facilitating their life. Even the basic amenities had not been provided to the colony, he added, and regretted that the authorities concerned were still reluctant to regularise the katchi abadi and had always been keeping them on false promises.

The issues of clean water, health and education have always remained pressing problems for the Keamari Town population. Certain plans to provide basic amenities and municipal services to many of the old localities did not materialise because of a dispute on their jurisdiction between the KPT and other civic agencies. Resultantly, the problems being faced by their residents remained unresolved and continued to multiply.

Land disputes in the coastal and rural areas of the town are also on the rise in the absence of a clear-cut policy and demarcation of the plots under occupation of the villagers.