Karachi "Water Mafia" Leaves Pakistanis Parched and Broke, Los Angeles Times, 16 March 2010
"Corrupt politicians allow businessmen to siphon off as much as 41% of the city's water supply and turn around and sell it at exorbitant rates to residents, generating an estimated $43 million a year. The illegal operations, routinely referred to as mafias, are everywhere. [...] The water tanker mafia's prey can be found in slums like Karachi's Gulshan-Sikanderabad neighborhood, where every morning people buy water from the tankers, lug the plastic jugs back to their homes on wooden carts, then come back three or four more times in the afternoon and evening to buy more. A family that makes $100 a month can spend as much as a quarter of that on water, which, elsewhere in Pakistan, costs pennies and flows out of household taps. Water scarcity isn't the cause. Karachi has a steady water supply, and it has the network of pipes to pump ample water into every neighborhood, rich and poor. But Karachi is also a city of opportunists forever on the prowl for under-the-table wealth. As municipal officials look the other way, businessmen illegally tap water mains, and use the makeshift hydrants to supply fleets of tankers that then sell water to businesses, factories and neighborhoods at inflated prices. As many as 272 million gallons a day are siphoned off by the trucks."
Read the full story.
Related articles:
Water more profit than life, 15 March 2010
Water sellers set up illegal reservoirs, DAWN, 26 December 2009
Water supply to city cut by half, DAWN, 19 June 2009
Over 390m gallons of water go to waste daily, The Nation, 18 October 2008
Related media:
Water problems in Karachi [video], Karachi Water Partnership and Eckova via YouTube, 24 May 2007
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