Population growth and aging water system has led to a serious crisis. Some neighborhoods have had no water for over three months. Women and children have to walk miles to nearest water source. Population demand water "at least once a week". Profit to be made from water attracts criminal underworld.

Karachi (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The exponential growth of the urban population and the aging of a now defunct hydration system has led to a dramatic water supply crisis in Karachi, Pakistan's most densely populated metropolis. According to experts, the problem is expected to worsen with the passage of time, and the anger and discontent of the southern city's citizens is rising, especially in the suburbs. In the slums people have set fire to tires and thrown stones at passing vehicles, chanting the slogan: "We want water at least once a week."

Unlike other cities, where the situation is less dramatic, people in Karachi go days without getting water from city trucks, sometimes forcing them to use groundwater contaminated with salt. The recent drought has contributed to worsening the situation and, in a city of 18 million people, the situation is destined to worsen.

Over the past three months, inhabitants of a little town called Yasmeen Islam, denounce that they have not received "a single drop of water" and protest "is our last resort." But the situation is not much better even in the richest districts, where water is supplied through tankers that fill the tanks only on certain days of the week.

Karachi draws most of its reserves from the River Indus, about two billion liters per day, and another 1.4 billion gallons from Hub dam in neighboring Baluchistan. However, in recent years the drought has dealt a blow to stocks and today only half of the daily requirement (4.5 billion liters) can be met.

The water business has attracted the interest of the underworld, in a volume of business that is multiplying with the passage of time and the worsening of the problem. The heads of the municipalities are trying to build another channel to draw from the Indus River, but even if the project gets the go ahead it will take at least four years for it to be completed and fully operational.

Meanwhile, citizens must invest more and more resources or travel increasingly longer distances for their daily water needs. Aisha Saleem, an elderly resident of Karachi, says that even the water they receive from institutions is salty. "Every day, women and children - she adds - are forced to walk miles and miles to get water."

 

 

• pakistan
• karachi
• water
• supply
• drought
• indus
• river
• criminal
• underworld