KARACHI, Dec 5: Raeesabad Goth, a village in Keamari Town with a population of around 8,000, remains without basic facilities with people having no access to potable water.
Local activists have been making a hue and cry, which has gone unheard. Residents say they have been living in the village, located on the main Hub River Road in Union Council Gabopat, for generations.
They had to buy water from tankers for their use, they added. The Gabopat UC provided water to the people through its small capacity water tankers, which was not enough.
In this dire situation, it are the women and schoolchildren who have to suffer the most, as they are the ones who have to fetch water from community water tanks for domestic use.
Then there is the 50-bed Raeesabad General Hospital Project, which has been facing delay since 1999 without any reason. Concerned health officials had demarcated two acres of land - donated by the area people. A former member of the Sindh Assembly had even laid the hospital's foundation stone, but no further step was taken after that, people told PPI.
The Nazim of UC Gabopat, Mubarak Baloch, said he had submitted several reminders to the concerned officials to initiate work on the hospital, but they all went unheeded.
Residents have to travel to the city for treatment, which sometimes even creates problems, as poor villagers cannot afford to pay to hire vehicles in emergency situations. Lives of women, especially in delivery-related cases are always at stake, people said.
Traditionally, the community has been engaged in cultivation. But, since rains have become scanty, people have gone out of work and are looking for alternate means to feed their families.
The state of education at the village is also very discouraging. Only one two-room government-run primary school is operating in the area. And with some 200 children enrolled in it, there is only a single teacher to look after all the children.
Parents have demanded the CDGK authorities to expand the school building, assign qualified teachers, and provide furniture and other facilities to save the future of their children. However, the unchanging attitude of civic agencies is causing a sense of depression among the villagers. - PPI