Water tanker rates skyrocket in DHA, Clifton

Karachi
Operators of water tankers have increased their service charges by more than 250 percent in many parts of Defence and Clifton even as the authorities claim razing several illegal hydrants over the past three months.
Water prices have skyrocketed in the last 10 days in the two neighbourhoods, creating financial problems for residents.
Water tankers are operated by private parties or individuals and neither the government nor any official regulatory body has any control over them. As the local government system does not exist in the mega city, the tanker mafia provides water at consumers’ doorsteps at prices set by themselves.
Although the consumption of water has gone down in winter and a number of illegal hydrants are said to have been demolished, water rates have been increased manifold.
The general secretary of the Defence Association Co-ordination Committee, Aziz Suharwardy, told The News on Saturday that residents in most parts of Defence, Clifton and the adjoining slums were paying Rs8,000 to Rs11,000 for a tanker containing 3,000 gallons.
Just 10 days ago, he said, 3,000 gallons were priced at Rs2,500 to Rs3,500, but all of a sudden the prices had gone beyond the reach of many people.
Suharwardy, who is also a member of the Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC), said the current water tanker rates were the highest since the establishment of Defence Housing Authority (DHA).
“There is no logic behind it. In the past, these tanker operators blamed expensive fuel costs for selling water at higher rates, but now even as the fuel prices have been slashed by almost 40 percent, they have not cut their water rates.”
Surprisingly, he said, these tankers were making less money at the time when the nearby water hydrants were closed. However, since some “closed” hydrants were reopened in Korangi a few days back, the water rates had shot up to 300 times, he mentioned.
The vice president of the Defence Society Residents’ Association, Asad Kizilbash, alleged that the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and the DHA administration were responsible for the current crisis.
“The demand for water in DHA’s phase I to VII, CBC and Katchi Abadis is 14 million to 17 million gallons per day.”
Kizilbash stated that being the sole developer of the Defence area, the authority should have pressed the KWSB to increase the water quota for the residents of Defence, Clifton and the adjoining areas. “Till to date, our areas never get the full quota of water as committed by the water board.”
In the 1990s, when DHA Phase VI was under construction, the KWSB agreed to provide nine million gallons per day, and later promised further three million gallons daily for these locations.
Phases I to VII have been developed and construction work in Phase VIII is in full swing. Phase VIII has more area than the combined area of phases I to VII.
On average, Kizilbash said, these areas received about seven and a half million gallons daily, a quantity which could never fulfil the needs of people living there.
The water supply was supposed to increase in the neighbourhoods as the KWSB had been bulldosing illegal water hydrants and removing illegal connections, but, ironically, the supply had been reduced to four and a half million gallons now, he claimed.
Zobia Zaman Khan, a resident of DHA Phase IV, said she paid Rs7,000 for a 3,000-gallon water tanker the other day. “I was purchasing the same amount of water for Rs2,100 till mid-January. Later, the water tanker operator started asking for Rs3,000 as they increased the rate around 15 days ago and now they are demanding Rs7,000 to Rs8,000 per tanker.”
She said residents had no other choice but to but expensive water as the CBC and DHA did not take any action to resolve the water shortage issue. People had to pay water tankers whatever amount they demanded, she added.
A resident of DHA Phase VI said she recently paid Rs4,000 for a water tanker, whereas in the past the rate was Rs2,500 for the same tanker. She said that some of her relatives, who lived in the same phase, were paying Rs10,000 for 3,000 gallons.