mafias dig tunnels to tap into the mains supply, stealing millions of gallons a day, said Iftikhar Ahmed Khan of KWSB. “These illegal hydrants are established by armed people, so it is very difficult for KWSB staff to just dismantle them,” he told AFP.
In recent months, government forces on a major anti-crime crackdown in the city have shuttered 200 illegal water connections, forcing many tankers to refill from KWSB and pay fees of $1-2 per 1,000 US gallons (3,700 litres).
The water is then resold for at least 10 times that price a few kilometres (miles) away in slums, posh neighbourhoods and industrial areas.
“There is an enormous amount of demand... (but) there is no regulatory check of the price the tankers are charging to the customer,” said Noman Ahmed, an expert on the water crisis at NED university in Karachi.
On the ground, the gangs continue to steal from the network while others pump directly from the groundwater table to resell what is undrinkable saline water.
Water, water everywhere
Karachi’s textile factories – the lifeblood of the Pakistani economy – use hundreds of millions of litres of water a day producing fabrics, T-shirts and jeans, many of which are exported to the West. One industrialist speaking on condition of anonymity admitted paying bribes to ensure the water kept flowing to his factory, but said even then he was sometimes forced to turn to the tanker gangs.
Many rich people are investing in powerful suction pumps to draw what water there is from the mains – thereby depriving their neighbours of their supply.
Karachi is on the Arabian Sea, but desalination costs are prohibitively expensive – and, with the water table falling and the population continuing to boom, it seems the city’s water woes are only just beginning.
“The government says there are water shortages,” said Abdul Samad, resident of the poor Metroville area. “But we see tankers in our neighbourhood every day – where’s that water coming from?”