Slums rife with illegal water connections

Unavailability of regularised water, sewage lines incite people to use water directly without a meter

KARACHI:

Despite local authorities endeavouring to promote development in urban centres, the slum areas located on the outskirts of the port city often go neglected, and thus in the absence of a regulated water and sewage line they continue to thrive on illegal water connections.

Despite the Sindh government announcing work on regularising illegal water networks across slums areas in Karachi through the assistance of organisations like the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Asian Infrastructure Bank, a large population of slum dwellers still rely heavily on illegally obtained water for sustenance due to the unavailability of a regulated water and sewage supply line.

Residents of the Machar Colony and Lyari areas of Karachi unravelled the major reason behind the pervasiveness of illegal water connections in many slum localities. “We are not guaranteed legal water connections by the government therefore we fulfil our water requirements through illegal connections and nearby water ponds,” addressed a local, who added that a majority of the slum population did not have a legal water connection.

According to data obtained from the Human Settlement Department of Sindh, there are at least 580 slums in Karachi, which accommodate up to 62 percent of the city’s population however, the unavailability of legal water connections means that the regulatory authority, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), does not collect any revenue from these areas.

“A large percentage of the water supply in Karachi is used up in slums, which house millions of people,” informed Najmi Alam, former vice chairman of Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader in the City Council.

The fact that such a large proportion of the water supply is used up for free indicates the degree of loss that the provincial treasury incurs due to illegal water connections. However, as per Abdul Qadir Shah, Spokesperson for KWSB, “there is no data available to determine the exact number of losses to our department.”

Speaking to the Express Tribune on the matter, Mazhar Sheikh, Project Director at the Karachi Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project (KWSSIP) said, “we have initiated a project which will regularise water connections in slum areas. This project which comprises two phases will cover 12 slums and will be completed in 20 months.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2023.