Years without water for Mauripur’s Hindu mohalla

Women forced to walk to distant localities to fetch water every day, even in the provincial capital

Despite living in the sprawling metropolis of Karachi which is considered the hub of economic activities in the country, many citizens still do not have access to drinking water.

Heer Bai strives hard to get potable water and expends all of her energies to fetch it from different areas every day.

“The last time we received water in the pipelines of our house was almost 12 years ago,” she recalls. “Now, I have to go to other areas to fetch some water each day, which is an arduous task. We do not even have brackish water available in our houses.”

It is not only Bai - all Hindu families living in old Khursheed Quarters in Mauripur have been suffering from the unavailability of drinking water for years. Resultantly, female members of the community are compelled to leave their houses and walk to different areas of the city in search of water daily.

Almost 250 Maheshwari families have been living in the quarters for years without the basic necessities of life.

“We have been living here for generations. Our ancestors dwelled in this area before the partition of 1947,” says Mohan Lal, an elderly person of the community, explaining that the neighbourhood was one of Karachi’s villages.

“We left for India during partition but came back within a few years. Our lives have become quite difficult now,” he recounts.

Maheshwari Panchayat Mauripur’s president, Sham Lal, tells The Express Tribune that neither public representatives nor the government officials pay any attention to the issues of his community.

“They [the community] know how to survive without other necessities but fetching water from other areas every day by crossing busy roads is not easy for our women. If nothing else, the government should at least do something about the provision of water here,” he decries.

Area residents say that the people living in nearby neighbourhoods are being supplied drinking water regularly.

Lal and other elders of the Hindu community have approached officials and public representatives about the restoration of water supply scheme in their area several times, but the appeals have fallen on deaf ears.

“No one listens to us,” Lal says with a sad smile. “Only those who are rich or have political support can afford this ‘commodity.’”

A resident named Abdullah Shah, who lives in a nearby mohalla, says that the Hindu community in Mauripur has been denied basic rights for years.

“I often visit them and always feel very disappointed to see their condition,” he explains. “Their houses are damaged and the streets are so narrow one can hardly cross them. There is nothing for them here.”

Shah proclaims that the Hindus, especially those belonging to lower castes, have been living in a deplorable condition in the city’s suburbs. “There is an acute shortage of water in other parts of Mauripur but the Hindu mohalla is in the worst condition,” he adds. “I have never seen any influential person ever visiting these destitute people. No one cares about their problems.”

Lal, on the other hand, says he does not demand anything from the government except for water. “We don’t want any jobs. We don’t ask the government to renovate our streets or reconstruct our homes, but we earnestly request the authorities to at least provide us with water.”

When approached, area MPA Liaquat Askani, who belongs to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), says that most areas under his constituency have a shortage of water and the Hindu neighbourhood is no exception.

“The Maheshwari mohalla receives water after every 10 to 12 days; other areas do not even get water for a month at a time,” he claims. “An 18-inch water supply pipeline will resolve the water scarcity issue in all the areas of Mauripur.”

The pipeline scheme is part of a mega-development project approved by Sindh’s ruling PPP government. “PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has announced this scheme to bring relief to the people of his constituency,” adds Askani.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2020.