KARACHI: There are people with water containers, jerrycans, buckets and bottles gathered around two big blue fiberglass water tanks behind the Trans Lyari Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant at the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park in Purana Golimar.

A small water pump, running on an illegal electricity connection from some far away pole in Pak Colony, pumps water into the tanks. As for the main taps of the RO plant, there is no electricity on that side so they don’t work. You only run into a few drug addicts sprawled under some shady trees there.

Babu Lassi, an area resident, says that the makeshift water arrangement at the back of the RO plant has been done by residents of UC1, UC2 and UC3. “Without it this area would be devoid of potable water altogether,” he said, adding that they don’t even know who runs the RO plant.

“The chemical being mixed into the water is also substandard,” he added. “The RO plant is being run by some company but the staff who work here have no employee cards to show who they work for. They are even worse than third-party contractual employees. No one, not the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation, nor the town or any union council owns them,” he informed.

Residents allege authorities don’t care about the facility as lawmakers living nearby receive water through bowsers

Providing some background on the RO plant, the residents said that it was constructed from Mohtarma Fauzia Wahab’s funds of around Rs43 crores. But they said that it was still incomplete. Some said that it would help if they could build an overhead tank to store water.

“Sadly many well-known and powerful politicians, including sitting and former MNAs, happen to live close by but they get their water through bowsers,” said another area resident.

“I still remember when on May 14, 1995, the then Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was passing through this area when we residents stopped her motorcade to inform her about their hardships regarding water supply. At that time Kamal Azfar was the governor of Sindh and through his cooperation a dedicated water pipeline was laid here. But water could be supplied through that pipeline only once. Now we are hearing about another separate pipeline from Hub to Baldia. Why can it not be extended till here?” said a senior resident.

Mohammad Farooq, the Trans Lyari RO plant operator, said that the plant is capable of supplying 250,000 gallons of water in a day though it has not happened as yet. “The area needs uninterrupted electricity for the RO plant to work,” he pointed out. “But out here there is no power for 12 to 15 hours a day. Maintenance, too, is an issue. It seems like no one remembers that there is an RO plant, and that also a very big one, here,” he said.

“The RO plant membrane urgently needs replacement. We also don’t get the standard chemicals. We are making do with substandard stuff from the market. And on top of that, we don’t get paid regular salaries. Still, we are here on duty for the people,” he said.

It was also explained that the RO plant needs all three of its motors running in order to work full capacity. With it not happening, since most of the time there is no electricity, the people collect water from the makeshift arrangement at the back of the plant, which runs on one small motor. “We are just making do,” he said.

Not just the area residents, people from Mewa Shah, Bara Board, Garden and Jahangirabad along other places visit the Trans Lyari Park RO plant.

Mohammad Pervaiz, another RO plant worker there, said that many parts of the RO plant have also been stolen. “It was closed for some 10 months in 2018 after the management of Pak Oasis, which had been running it since 2014, packed up and left. Most of the employees here also left because they were not getting any salaries anymore. Then the drug addicts in the area walked off with whatever piece of equipment they fancied, including the generator parts.

“We get cash payments as salaries after two or three months now. Sometimes the area residents gather money to pay us, sometimes the UC people help us out,” he said.

“Qadir Patel is an MNA who lives nearby. We appeal to him to at least regularise these employees,” said Saleem Baloch, another area resident.

Dawn was informed by UC3 Chairman Waja Wali Mohammad that he is hopeful of things improving. “I have written many letters to the people concerned. We also have new bore wells in the park. Besides two of the five bore wells here were faulty which have also been repaired now,” he said. He also mentioned that he was trying to convince K-Electric to switch the RO plant connection from Golimar to Pak Colony, where power issues are lesser. “Here we have no power for 12 to 15 hours and in Pak Colony at least they get 18 hours of electricity a day,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2025