In Karachi, water is like liquid gold for those controlling it. The city's decades-old water crisis has deepened into a criminal enterprise, with tanker mafias operating unchecked, often with the silent complicity of those tasked with managing public utilities. This is not a recent development. Karachi has always faced water shortages, but never before has the theft and trade of water been so systematically entrenched, so brazenly defended and so lethally protected.
In a rare moment of official candour, Mayor Murtaza Wahab has acknowledged the scale of illegal water extraction taking place in the city. Following a surprise inspection on May 10 accompanied by senior officials of KWSC, the mayor confirmed widespread unauthorised tapping in both the Federal Trunk Main and Customer and Technical Maintenance divisions.
His letter to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah outlines the scale of the theft and the total collapse of internal oversight. Two officials have been suspended. But this is barely a scratch on the surface of a deep-rooted problem. Karachi needs 1,200 million gallons of water daily. It receives barely half of that. What isn't delivered through the fragile and aging infrastructure is stolen by water tanker mafias at extortionate rates to desperate citizens. Those who have dared to raise their voice have faced threats and, in some tragic cases, death. Moreover, the complicity of certain officials within KWSC can also be brushed aside as mere negligence.
Mayor Wahab's call for an inquiry and subsequent action is a welcome, if long overdue, step. But Karachi cannot afford another inquiry that dies in silence. What is needed now is not just accountability but an unflinching dismantling of the entire tanker mafia network, regardless of how high or deep the roots go.
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