The city of operations, Karachi….is set to witness another one soon but this time against its own legal hydrants....
The city of operations, Karachi….is set to witness another one soon but this time against its own legal hydrants where water tanker mafia has gained momentum amidst severe water shortage. The hydrant mafia as it is termed depicts the complexity of its nature.
With soaring temperatures and long duration power outages along with non-availability of water has crippled life in many areas. The karachites are at the behest of the hydrants for their basic need which end up charging them exorbitantly. Although the government has fixed the price of these tankers, rarely does the public get water at the price announced. The local government minister has now directed the commissioner and deputy commissioners to ensure that water from legal hydrants is made available to the public on the fixed price and to take action against those who do not follow.
The Sindh government has turned a blind eye in controlling the price of water tankers from its own legal hydrants. Although, it is not at all difficult to control this price, as the administration doesn’t need to constitute any price control committees like it does for commodities. Neither is this impossible as there are only 20 legal hydrants open from where the water is being provided for residential and commercial use.
“Mubarak ho, Mubarak ho, zindabaaad , zindabaaad!” the atmosphere is roaring with these slogans in Bewa Colony of Orangi Town. Children of all sizes, women and men are seen gathered in a narrow lane celebrating the successful boring done. However, the water that is seen some twenty feet down is extremely smelly and muddy and from no angle seems to be suitable for drinking purpose.
“We will boil and check it. If it’s not for drinking, at least we can use it for bathing and washing clothes” laments one of the residents. Many colonies of Orangi two have been living on water from boring for the past two years. They all pay the KWSB utility bills, but are not provided by the utility. The water they use is health hazardous. It has caused gastro and skin issues and is extremely salty. Population residing in Orangi Saray Giyara Sector are very poor. They indeed cannot afford water tankers to fulfil their needs. Moreover, there are many goths where the access of tankers is not possible due to the narrow lanes.
Water tankers of all sizes are seen all day making trips through the Islam Chawk, Orangi Town. These tankers fill water either from the German School Hydrant, which operates thrice a week or sometimes from Sakran, a place near Hub.
The public has been complaining of being charged from Rs6,000 to Rs12,000 for a water tanker which is in sharp contrast to the prices fixed. According to a notification issued by local government minister, 1,000 gallons will be charge Rs1,000; 2,000 gallons for Rs1,300; 3,000 gallons for Rs1,700 and 5,000 gallons for Rs2,800. The water tanker mafia has been able to gain momentum through legal hydrants. Before, the illegal hydrants numbering around 180 were the main source of their business operations. It is indeed the most profitable business with many powerful people with, our without uniform that reap benefits out of it.
These illegal hydrants were operational until the beginning of this year. It was only after a coercive operation, conducted by the rangers on request of the provincial government, that these illegal hydrants, using water from punctured KWSB lines were destroyed. The operation was termed successful. The PPP government in Sindh considered it as a milestone achieved. However, the operation led to more public woes which the administration has yet to resolve. It caused a great blow to the business of water tanker mafia and the public was being charged exorbitantly if at all they could find one to feed their needs.
Meanwhile, KWSB made some 22 of its hydrants available to cater the needs of areas extremely hit by the water crisis. However, instead of these legal hydrants catering to the public it became a source of water tanker mafia to gain momentum once again. The story at just one hydrant explains the real beneficiary of the reopening of legal hydrants by Karachi water and sewerage board.
The hydrant at Nipa which caters Gulistan-e-Johar and Gulshan-e-Jamal allows only twenty water tankers at government price in twenty four hours. The rest of the filling is done by water tankers who pay a minimum of three hundred and fifty rupees to KWSB as filling charges and charge the public at their own prices. The KWSB hydrants are actually to cater to the public of worst affected areas. The operation involves KWSB staff writing the complaint and then sending the required size of water tanker to fulfil their needs. Nipa Hydrant has asked the public to register their requirement at 6pm every day. But because only twenty water tankers are to be sent at government price rate the victims start gathering at the place as early as 4am so that they can get the water at affordable rates. The rest of the public deals with the tanker drivers directly and ends up paying huge amounts.
It is surprising that on one hand Local Government Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon directs the commissioner to ensure availability of water tankers at government price, and on the other, these legal hydrants become the source of illegal operation. The munshi at Nipa hydrant reveals that out of the twenty tankers to be delivered in a day on government price, they are also sent lists of favorites by the top officials. Therefore, even twenty people are not catered on a single day. Needless to say that these favorites never end up paying.
At the Sakhi Hassan hydrant which is just about two minutes walk down the district commissioner south’s office, water board staff is busy writing complains in their register. This hydrant caters to North Nazimabad but now is also looking after North Karachi sector where the issue is worsening. The staff hands over a green receipt to drivers of these water tankers mentioning the government price on each. However, these receipts are thrown on the streets by the drivers or in the bins by the complaint staff, and public is charged not less than Rs4,000 a resident of the area reveals. One can imagine that the extra buck being charged is distributed amongst the tanker owner and KWSB staff.
These legal hydrants apart from supplying water to residential areas have a commercial category too. It means that water is sent to industries that face shortage and prices for commercial use is more as fixed by the government. Unfortunately the illiteracy maybe has taken toll over the KWSB Staff. Sakhi Hassan hydrant has been selling water under commercial category to shops in North Karachi sector near Nagan Chowrangi, which in turn sell it to residents of the area at Rs1 per litre.
There are areas in Karachi where life is dependant only on water tankers. These include Clifton, Defence, Gulshan-e-Jamal to name a few. Other areas where water availability was never an issue too have become problematic. Naturally, there has been no sudden explosion in population that one can understand the administration’s excuse of demand and supply gap. One can believe that there has been no proper monsoon in Sindh which did lead to water levels dropping in Hub Dam….one of the main source of water supply for the city of Karachi. However, the real issue has been theft, distribution and treating the basic utility as profitable business by none other than those in the power corridors.
KWSB is relying on private contractors for its operation from the hydrants, and therefore end up giving a lame excuse of them (private contractors) directly charging public more than the fixed amount. If this is something they cannot control, KWSB could have struck a deal with any transport company for its operation and hence could have taken control over it.
The public in Karachi has two severe issues at hand. First, non-availability of water through the public utility, and second, paying huge amounts to water tankers. Amidst these, any announcement by Sindh chief minister on releasing funds for KWSB, importing parts of a non-functional pump in North east Karachi from Germany, beginning of K4 project are nothing but cosmetic announcements.
Anything in Karachi, which challenges the writ of the government or becomes uncontrollable by the administration, is conveniently termed as “mafia.” Who will act against this mafia which constitute all those entitled to provide water to the citizens of Karachi.
The writer is a broadcast journalist
