KARACHI, Dec 30: Residents of Mubarak village in Keamari are extremely worried and looking towards the government for completion of an under-construction dam as they fear that the upcoming winter rains may play havoc with their lives in the absence of the protection the dam could provide.

Last year many localities close to the under-construction water reservoir suffered heavy losses when the monsoon rains devastated their houses and belongings.

However, despite their constant appeals for completion of the dam, the work on the project remained suspended for reasons best known to the authorities concerned.

“Ever since the widespread damage caused by the last year’s downpour, we have been urging them [authorities] to get the dam completed to avoid a recurrence of such tragedies in the future. But all our appeals have fallen on deaf ears so far,” said an elderly person of the village.

“Unless emergency measures are taken for the completion of the construction work of the dam, the winter rain is sure to wreak havoc again,” he further said.

Almost all residents of Mubarak village are poor fishermen. And most of their huts are built with wooden straws and mud. A large number of these huts were washed away when the torrential monsoon rains coupled with strong winds hit the village last year.

The rainwater gushed out from the dam breaking its fragile boundaries, flooding the entire village and destroying houses and belongings of the poor villagers.

An elderly villager, Mohammad Haroon, said that construction of the dam had been started in Sept 2002 by the city government under the Drought Emergency Relief Assistance (Dera) programme with a view to conserving the rainwater.

But the contractor abruptly stopped the work for reasons best known to authorities and thereafter they never showed any interest in the project.

Mr Haroon said that Mubarak village and its surroundings had a great potential of becoming a very attractive tourist spot because of its scenic beauty as it was located near the Arabian Sea but successive governments never considered developing the area on these lines.

“The villagers do not have basic facilities like electricity and clean drinking water despite the fact that the village is near the Hub Dam and the Hubco power plant,” he lamented.

According to him, the villagers either fetch ‘potable’ water from ponds of subsoil water or they pool money to buy hydrant water from Karachi.

He said that the present government had recently announced a plan to develop the village as a model village for the fishermen community. In this regard, he added, a solar energy plant was to be set up for the electrification of the village, but none of these projects could be materialised so far.