Inhabitants of several coastal villages near Mubarak Village, some 42 kilometers away from the heart of Karachi, were overwhelmed with joy when a solar-powered water filtration plant, installed with the efforts of the Director Health Karachi, started producing clean drinking water on Saturday.
Having the capacity of producing 5000 liters of clean drinking water per day, the solar-powered water filtration plant with a huge pond to collect the rainwater was installed with the efforts of Director Health Karachi Dr.
Akram Sultan, who convinced some philanthropists and the office-bearers of Rotary Club to finance the project and make it a reality.
“For the first time in our lives, our women and children are drinking clean water free of charge as we used to buy clean drink water or drink from the pond which is used to quench the thirst of both humans and animals”, said Azad Jokhio, an elder of the Muhammad Allu Goth near Mubarak Village, Hawksbay while talking to newsmen.
Talking to newsmen, Director Health Karachi Dr.Akram Sultan said he approached the philanthropists of Karachi, especially Asif Idrees, a local businessman who is helping the inhabitants of coastal villages in getting clean drinking water, education, and health facilities while Rotary Club provided the grant and technical to install the filter plant.
The filtration plant was formally inaugurated by Aziz Memon, Trustee of the Rotary Foundation along with Rotary Club’s District Governor Aftab Imam, Asher Ali, Muhammad Dawood, and Asif Idrees in addition to a large number of villagers from the coastal area.
“People of this coastal area were thirsty for centuries despite being in front of the sea.There was no source of clean drinking water in the area but due to the efforts of several people, especially Rotary Club office-bearers, people of this area are now able to drink clean water without making effort”, Aziz Memon said.
Local businessman Asif Idrees said around one hundred thousand people in the coastal villages around Mubarak Village need facilities of clean drinking water, sanitation, education, and most importantly health facilities as they have to travel 30-40 kilometres to seek medical help.
“We are trying to provide clean drinking water with the help of Rotary Club and other organizations to people of this area but they also need other facilities like health services.
Hundreds of people, especially women and children die due to lack of health facilities in the area”, Asif Idrees said.
He maintained that if the government posts a gynecologist in the area, they would provide her free of charge residence and other facilities as dozens of women die every month as they cannot reach any health facility during pregnancy or at the time of child birth.
