KARACHI, Sept 19: Availability of basic facilities is still the most urgent problem in the Shah Beg Lane Union Council area of Lyari Town. For years, the locality inhabited by over 58,000 people is devoid of basic civic facilities. The streets and roads in the locality are in a dilapidated state and garbage is found littered every where.

Residents of the locality say that water shortage has been persisting in the locality for almost a decade. There have been repeated protests in the locality over the shortage, but they failed to elicit any response from the authorities concerned.

According to the residents, most of the streets and roads in the UC have been built during the Local Body system introduced by the then military ruler Ayub Khan, and since then they have not been repaired.

Garbage spreads on the streets in the locality, as there is no effective system of sweeping. In most of the areas of the union council, sanitary staff hardly attend their duties regularly.

The UC area comprises Shah Beg Lane, Punjgori Mohalla, old Kalri, which also include Ali Mohammad Mohalla and Eidu Lane. A resident of Ali Mohammad Mohalla complained that the area had always been a victim of official negligence.

He said the water shortage had been persisting in the locality over a decade, but no serious step had been taken so far to resolve the issue, despite widespread public protest. The residents have urged the government to direct the agencies concerned to take urgent measures for providing basic facilities to them.