THE water tanker mafia has created an artificial water crisis in the city despite the overfilling of the Hub dam, one of the main water supply sources in Karachi.

The residents of Metroville SITE area, which has 7,200 houses, have been purchasing water on rates as high as Rs 2, 200 per thousand gallons. Every month a common household in the locality is forced to spend Rs8, 800 for 4,000 gallons, which is beyond the affordability of this low-income area.

Because of Covid-19; many of the residents have lost their jobs. Now they can hardly make ends meet let alone pay a huge amount to the water mafia who we know are stealing water from the KWSB’s supply. Water is a necessity and it should be supplied daily on lowest rates possible. But by depriving the citizens of water, these miscreants make millions of rupees illegally per month.

I appeal to the Honorable Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of this open corruption and shameless theft of water by the tanker mafia.

Saba Khan
Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2020