KARACHI: Several stakeholders, with the exception of representatives of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), gathered to ponder over the causes and consequences of water shortage in Karachi at a seminar organised by Shehri-Citizens for a Better Environment (CBE) supported by Friedrich Naumann Stiftung Fur Die Freiheit in a hotel here on Tuesday.

In her introductory remarks, Amra Javed, executive member of Shehri-CBE, spoke about the number of problems in terms of quality and quantity of the city’s water supply, including severe shortages, artificial shortages, supply of contaminated water, rising decline in the quality of service, hiring more people than needed, hiring unqualified manpower and financial bankruptcy. “The adverse consequences have to be borne by the citizens of the city in terms of exposure to health hazards, decline in the quality of living and being forced to purchase water at high rates from an unregulated and undesirable water tanker service,” she said.

Discussing the water shortage crisis in Karachi, urban planner Farhan Anwar of Shehri-CBE said that ideally there should be no water shortage in the city. “If all the water that the city receives is properly supplied to the consumers, it would take care of the demand. But the problem here is that between 40 and 50 per cent of the water is lost due to leakages in an old infrastructure and to theft.

“The tariff structure is also silly as it is based on plot sizes instead of the water being metered. People’s perception that water is their basic right and should be supplied free of charge is another issue. There are suction pumps in every other home, adding to the problem. The hydrants also have an element of corruption with artificial shortages created in areas where it is understood that people can buy water at high costs,” he said, adding that all these issues needed to be addressed and solutions sought with priority use to be identified, a groundwater policy introduced and awareness spread. But the planning should not be devoid of public input.

Dr Noman Ahmed, chairman of the department of architecture and planning at the NED University, said most of the population didn’t think tap water to be fit for drinking so they preferred bottled water.

But the affluent class got the premium brands of water, the middle-income group went for a wider range of bottled water that was not very expensive and also boiled and used tap water for drinking, but the lower-income group used plain tap water.

“As the population grows, the water demand grows, too, and lifestyle changes are adding to the needs,” he said.

“Access to safe drinking water in Pakistan is available to 60pc of the population. Over 40pc deaths in urban areas are caused by drinking contaminated water.”

About the water tankers, he said that the tanker operation was initially introduced to work with the KWSB. But as the infrastructure became old and let the utility down, more tankers were needed and so contractors were brought in to help fulfil the demand. “And now the tanker service has spread so much that it has changed into a commercial supply,” he said. “The water tariff itself is low but it goes up drastically when supplied by tankers.”

The professor also said that with time the human resource within the utility was also fading out and losing quality. All the knowledge is going out as the KWSB’s senior staff retired. He said there was also a disconnect between the consumers and the utility. Then to add to those who didn’t pay their water bills there was also a list of institutional defaulters. Many bulk consumers in the public and private sector had large bills to settle with the utility, pushing it to bankruptcy.

Ghulam Mastikhan, chairman of the All Karachi Tankers Association, said there was a time when Karachi only had one hydrant. More were added one by one. “People complain that tanker water is too expensive, but they should understand that earlier the KWSB used to supply tanker trips and now there is a contractor in the middle taking his share, too. The tanker itself is a service and not really a ‘mafia’ as people like to refer to it,” he said. “We have our share of troubles, too. Still if you are not happy with us, don’t buy water from us. Have us shut down and then see how the KWSB supplies you water.”

Asked what was the rate fixed by his association for each tanker, Mr Mastikhan said there could not be a fixed rate. “The rates depend on the distances travelled, the time consumed, the commissions demanded by traffic police, etc,” he said.

Meanwhile, elaborating on that Mohammad Sharif, general secretary of the All Karachi Tankers Association, said tanker drivers were stopped by police on the way to a delivery and diverted to a DSP’s home or any other high-up in the police department. “If the driver refuses to do that, the tanker is impounded. It takes Rs25,000 to have it released then,” he said.

Saying that there were 5,200 tankers registered with the organisation, the general secretary said all tanker operators were aware of the by-laws such as informing consumers if the water they were carrying was brackish or sweet. We also listen to complaints at our office in Korangi,” he said, adding that the KWSB owned 16 hydrants all over the city and if they took care that there was no corruption in the money coming in from those hydrants, they could easily pay their own dues and salaries to the employees.

Meanwhile, it was said that even after several invitations and reminders by the organisers of the seminar, no representatives of the KWSB attended it.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2014