Not a Drop to Drink

Pakistan’s shortage of safe drinking water

Pakistan’s water-distribution problems are well-known. Contaminated drinking water causes 40 percent of the deaths in the country every year, according to newspaper reports. The Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources collected data on water quality in major cities between 2015 and 2016, and it declared that Lahore’s old pipelines were a source of bacterial contamination in the distribution system and that they should be replaced. Leaks and water theft are widespread in Karachi. A water-tanker mafia ensures that only the upper-middle classes can access water, at high prices. World Bank findings indicate that only a very small fraction of wastewater is actually treated, which implies that the irrigation canals used by many low-income villagers often have contaminated water.

Despite residents spending 3000 rupees a month on access to clean water, rusty pipelines, which installed almost 40 years ago, are contaminating the supply.

I spoke to Bill Young, a water specialist at the World Bank. “Ultimately in Pakistan, the access and rights to water are tied to access and rights to land, and much of the land, therefore, where water is concerned, is controlled by a small number of very powerful people,” he said.

I met Haji Mohammed Ali, the vice chairman of the union council in Larex Colony, an area close to Joseph Colony. Mohammed Ali told me that they present daily reports to the Water and Sanitation Agency, a government body responsible for maintaining the water supply and sewage system—which declined to comment. He attributed the problems with the pipelines to a paucity of funding. “Funds here are depleting in these deprived areas,” he said. “I can’t manage the increasing complaints. After water, sanitation is the biggest complaint.”

Masih said that he does not want his children living in these conditions. “Things take time, I don’t see change coming so quickly,” he said. “I’ve experienced this water issue for 25 years. The water we get today is better than the water in the past. That was far dirtier, we washed and bathed with that also.” The students told me recently that they continue to ask Altaf and his family if there are any improvements. Outside their home, the children continue to fill their water bottles from the decayed pipelines.

Altaf Masih, a sanitary worker and resident of Joseph Colony, a neighbourhood in Lahore, sat on a mattress in a single room that houses his entire family. It was an afternoon in July. The walls, painted a warm brown, displayed family portraits and paintings of Jesus. Masih moved his dog to make space for three students from the environmental-activist group Team Awaaz who had just arrived—Zoya Ali, Zameer Ahmed and Anum Qayyum. “The conditions for families living in this colony are extremely challenging,” Ali said. “I am not even sure that is a strong enough word,” she added, pointing to one of Masih’s daughters. “Look at the rashes on their legs.”

A predominantly Christian area, Joseph Colony is located in Badami Bagh, an area that derives its name from a massive almond garden that grew there during the Mughal era. A chaotic and sprawling spare-parts market stands in its place today, surrounded by steel and iron factories. Joseph Colony is a community of around 2,000 people, many of whom are sanitary workers. The residents live in approximately 116 makeshift homes. After an arson attack in March 2013, when Muslim rioters torched several homes and businesses, houses were haphazardly repaired. Often, up to 25 people live in each dwelling, with only two bathrooms for five families. However, the colony is considered to be prime real-estate by the Lahore municipal corporation due to its location in the heart of an industrial area.

Residents told me that they were experiencing a severe lack of access to clean water: they spend 3,000 rupees a month on access to clean water—a formidable sum for low-income sanitary workers. Rusty pipelines, which were installed almost 40 years ago, are contaminating the water supply. Ali, who is a medical student, told me there was also human waste in the decayed pipelines. She showed me a microbiology report that identified E. Coli and coliforms in the water, in a concentrations—over 18 per 100 ml—that make it unfit for human consumption.

In July 2017 I spoke to people in the neighbourhood, who alleged that their religious marginalisation was causing a delay in repairing the pipelines. Residents in the neighbourhood also face the threat of losing their land: several people told me that factory owners of the steel-scrap market want to convert the area into a commercial space. Masih told me he has been repeatedly asked to prove ownership of his house, despite showing the land deed his parents purchased over 40 years ago. Municipal authorities allege that the houses are rented but that residents do not have full ownership.