In the city by the sea, park tries to woo people with a lake

Town planner warns lake can become source of illness if not maintained.

KARACHI:

A six-acre artificial lake inside Aziz Bhatti park in Gulshan-e-Iqbal is being rebuilt as part of the efforts to restore the park.

The city has already lost most of its park spaces and amenity plots to the land mafia, but the administration of Aziz Bhatti park hopes that this lake will be a welcome respite.

The revival of the lake is part of a Rs310-million project to refurbish the park that was lying dormant for years — becoming a haven for drug addicts and stray dogs.

“I am convinced this will work,” said Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s (KMC) head of parks and horticulture department Niaz Soomro. “The lake will really help attract more people to the park.”

The department has already finalised a detailed design of the lake and have completed other formalities as well. “Now, we are sending the proposal to the Sindh government for its approval. Hopefully, work will start soon.”



Aziz Bhatti park is spread over 20 acres and less than 15 per cent of it is being used at the moment - that too, only by nearby residents for their morning walk. Once the new design is in place, the park will have a jogging track that crosses over the lake, a skating ramp, a grass maze, a play area for children and a food court.

A 250-foot-long bird aviary will also be built, said Soomro. “It will be big enough to be seen from outside the park,” he explained. “People can just walk though the aviary, watch exotic birds living in a natural habitat.”

The lakes

Over the years, successive administrations paid little attention to the artificial lake, which has turned into a swamp with weeds. Before the lake was formed, workers of a nearby cement factory would take out rocks from the quarry and use it in the factory.

When the factory wrapped up its operation, the authorities decided, however, to make use of the open pit - the lake was formed with waste water from a filtration plant of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board.

The artificial lake in Jheel Park, in PECHS, also came into existence because of quarrying, said Arif Hasan, the noted town planner. “All the lakes in the city were formed as a result of excavation.” There is no natural lake in the city, he added.



Hasan agreed that lakes help people relax. “But they can also turn into source of illnesses if not maintained properly,” he warned. “That is something we need to look at closely.”

Maintenance is something even KMC agrees will be a problem, since finances for development projects are already running low. “We have decided to add a food court in the park, where we will rent out the shops and use the money for maintenance,” said Soomro.

Encroachment

A senior KMC official admitted that they are trying to get the park’s renovations underway as soon as possible as there are some real estate developers, backed by political parties, trying to encroach upon the land.

The land around the lake, which no one claimed for years, has suddenly become important for the land revenue department, he said. “We have been told that the city administration never bought the land in the first place.”

According to him, some individuals have claimed that the park is their property. “This happens every time we start development projects. People see that price of land will go up and they jump in with false claims.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2013.