Karachi, the biggest city of Pakistan is facing a scarcity of clean water. Karachi which population is 14.91 million (2017), and only a few people have clean water to drink or use. As water is an essential need of everyone so they have to purchase it from the water supply mafia to fulfill their need.
As the UNICEF said that:
“The cause of much of Pakistan’s diarrhea is bacteria in polluted water that residents drinks.”
The illegal water mafia or tanker mafia both are same, actively working in Karachi, as Ghulam Qadir the chief engineer of Karachi water and sewerage board said
“We are suffering from water scarcity and that’s why the tanker mafia is active”
The tanker mafia is making their profit maximize, where the whole city is facing water scarcity some unknowns cut government water pipelines and stole the water to supply on doubled price to the public. This is now a very lucrative business. There is no police and higher authority who take action against it because these people are also involved in it they also take a large share of profit from this tanker mafia business.
In Karachi many water supply pump called hydrants, KDA hydrant, Serena hydrants, etc are successively running they cut the government water pipeline connection and stole water to supply on the price of their own set to the general public.
As Mustafa Kamal said :
“The tanker mafia business is more profitable as compared to a drug supply business”(news)
As per the facts and figures, each water tanker contains 1000 gallons Rs 275, double tanker 2000 gallons Rs 375. the general public tanker supply is increasing their charges, in the country, the unemployment rate is 4.45%. This is also an expense for the public to afford a tanker after every 15 days which costs 3000 to 9000 as per tanker size and water quality, is the water clean and smelly.. the government and authorities close their eyes to this matter
As Ghulam Qadir said
“The city receives 450 million gallons a day but requires 1200 million gallons.”
He estimated that about a third of municipal water is lost or siphoned,
Government has to maintain and built a strong water infrastructure and fit a smart water system so the mafias could not steal water. secondly, if the government could not do this then they have to privatize the water supply in the city as the electricity is provided by the private organization(K Electric). So, the private organization makes a strong and strict water supply system with a smart check and balance that nobody can steal the H2O. Therefore, the public demands from the government to take any action against it and provide everyone their basic right to drink and use clean water. authorities have to check these mafias networks and take action against those people who have stolen the basic right of the public.
