"Pakistan was founded 67 years ago but we have still not been able to solve the water issue," said someone. "The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has failed as an institution and is corrupt," said another. "No, there is no water crisis in the city. It is just a political issue," said someone else.
As the argument grew heated, the temperature in the conference room where a seminar on the city's prevailing water crisis was taking place, started to rise.
The seminar which was organised by Shehri-Citizens For A Better Environment, brought together planning experts and architects, including Prof Dr Noman Ahmed, chairperson of the NED University's architecture and planning department, urban planner Farhan Anwar, Shehri's Amra Javed and the general secretary of the All Karachi Water Tanker Ittihad, Muhammad Sharif.
They highlighted what problems the city will face due to the water shortage and suggested ways to resolve these issues.
They talked about illegal hydrants, the KWSB, bad infrastructure, population and lack of governance in the city. The question and answer session, was the most interesting part of the seminar as people really started to open up.
Lala Amin, a human rights activist, said that the water issue was not related to the Sindh government and the 'Namaloom Afraad' were creating problems for the city.
Urban planner Farhan Anwar, who is also a member of Shehri, pointed out that the seat they had reserved for the KWSB official, Rashid Siddiqui, was empty. "It is unfortunate that the seminar had to be conducted without any representation from the KWSB," he said.
When the general secretary of the All Karachi Tanker Ittehad, Muhammad Sharif, started speaking, he was bombarded with loaded questions. He had to stick his neck out and said: "There is no uniform policy for water tanker rates so hydrant owners are charging different rates in different areas. People should not think of us as a mafia, we are just providing a service."
He added that there were around 5,200 registered water tankers which provided water to every house in every corner of the city. He continued to talk about legal hydrants in the city, when a Shehri member interrupted Sharif and told him that according to their research there were 22 legal hydrants in the city but only 16 were functional.
"If the KWSB officials can stop corruption at the hydrant level, they can solve all their problems," said Sharif. "It would also help if they cleared all their dues." He added that KWSB also used to supply water through water tankers where the infrastructure was not good but later they outsourced it.
Catch the thief
Dr Ahmed said that water theft was an organised crime in which 35 per cent of the city's potable water was being stolen by the tanker mafia.
"There are massive water leakages in different areas of the city," he said. "The aging infrastructure and unprecedented developments are reasons for a shortage of potable water." He added that we have to rationalise the KWSB's financial structure to create appropriate consumer relations and billing system.
He claimed that the consumer needs to be willing to pay for the service as at the moment only nine per cent of the customers were paying their bills. According to Javed, the citizens were also suffering due to the expansion and development in the city as not everyone was linked with the KWSB's supply lines and this had created an artificial water crisis.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2014.
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