Home to around 18 million people, the residents of the city require clean, safe

water – fit for consumption. And a lot of it. What is more exasperating for the
locals is that a solution to this critical problem remains low on the list of
priorities for the government. Unfortunately, urban water supply has steadily
gotten worse over the years. The current situation calls for creating awareness
for, and promotion of, efficient use and conservation of water.

Reports indicate that water is supplied to these hapless consumers is insufficient

and contaminated, which is not fit for drinking. According to health experts,
around 30,000 people, most of them children, die each year in the city due to
consumption of contaminated water.

The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) is solely responsible for
municipal water supply and the management of waste water as well as sewerage
in the city. To be specific, potable water supply, its bulk transmission, primary,
secondary and tertiary distribution, enactment of tariff and recovery of
revenues, operation and maintenance of the supply, disposal of waste-water as
well as supply of water through tankers for emergency purposes are key
components of the services extended by the KWSB.

However, a decline in the KWSB’s institutional capacities to manage its aging

operational systems, imbalance in the supply and demand, dilapidated water
distribution networks, decaying pumping machines, soaring incidents of water
theft and leakages in the supply lines, increasing dependence on water vendors
and inappropriate as well as imprudent tariff structures are, among others,
pressing problems which have created impediments in the overall performance
of the KWSB.

“Several solutions have been proposed in the past by water experts at different
forums and conveyed to the government officials, but such efforts have failed
for reasons unknown,” says Mumtaz Khaskheli, an expert on potable water and
sanitation.

“Recent changes initiated by the government such as the commercialisation of

entire beaches, real-estate development and real-estate schemes along highways
have also exerted an enormous pressure on demand for safe water. In addition,
formal and informal settlements have also increased the demand for a
continuous water supply,” says Gulshan Shaikh, a sub-engineer of the KWSB.

Members of the Hisaar Foundation in Karachi, a civil society organisation

involved in promoting the conservation of water, estimate that around 40 per
cent of the water in the city is wasted due to leakages in the supply lines and
another 25 per cent is wasted by consumers in form of leaky taps, washing cars,
watering their gardens, etc.
However, it is not just health problems that are associated with unclean water

Water experts say that at a time when fresh water resources are fast depleting
and its availability to the people plummeting, revamping the KWSB and the
way it functions as a whole is the need of the hour. The replacement of the
water supply infrastructure in the metropolis and adjoining suburbs is equally
critical for conservation and an efficient use of water.