ZARDARI CORRUPTION:PPP JIAYALA MISBAHUDDIN FARID, resigned on Thursday due to “personal reasons”. Hectic job making $ 43 Million from poor people of Karachi.

KARACHI:

The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board managing director, Misbahuddin Farid, resigned on Thursday due to “personal reasons”, leaving behind a utility struggling to meet the city’s water needs amid increasing theft.

The sudden exit of the MD left even his closest of aides wondering what exactly pushed him to take this step as Farid was considered close to the ruling coalition.

“I am tired. There are so many things to look after, such as my health and family,” Farid told The Express Tribune. “It was a hectic job. New issues concerning water and sewerage come up every day.” But he hinted at frustration with the job and bureaucracy, saying, “I was fighting on so many fronts at the same time. How could I tackle illegal hydrants stealing water and mafias involved in encroaching on our land all by myself?”

It was not clear if the Sindh local government department had accepted Farid’s resignation by the time this report was filed late Thursday. There was no word on his replacement either and the water board’s media department refused to issue any official statement.

His exit comes just two days after the water board shut off all the hydrants across the city in a bid to end water theft. Over the past few months, the board has taken action against illegal water connections and hydrants which caused pressure to drop in main pipelines. Tankers fill up from these hydrants to sell in areas not connected to the piped network.

After joining KWSB in November, 1987, Farid was appointed managing director on January15, 2011. As project manager, he played a prominent role in the K-III scheme, which brought an additional supply of 100 million gallons per day (MGD) to the city in 2006.

Farid was known to keep an open relationship with the media and took journalists along on “operations” against water theft. But some people have accused him of turning a blind eye to ‘influential’ culprits and those with political affiliations.

The Karachi Water Tanker Owners Welfare Association alleged that illegal hydrants were still running in Baldia, Manghopir, Banaras and other areas. According to the association, the hydrants, which suck water from large pipelines, can’t be set up without the tacit approval of the water board.

A senior water board official, who worked closely with Farid, blamed political interference for the frustration in the organisation. “We shut down illegal hydrants so many times but somehow, they start working again.” He alleged that the police have always been reluctant to help them board control theft.

“The government has been asked so many times to make theft a non-bailable offence but no action has been taken as yet.”

Karachi needs 1,100 MGD but receives around 450 MGD.

PPP & MQM Run Karachi ‘water mafia’ leaves Pakistanis parched and broke

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

Corrupt PPP and MQM politicians allow businessmen to siphon off as much as 41% of the city’s water supply and turn around and sell it at exorbitant rates to residents, generating an estimated $43 million a year.

For those on the city’s bottom rung, however, the underworld entity they revile the most is the water tanker mafia, a network of trucking firms that teams up with corrupt bureaucrats to turn water into liquid gold worth tens of millions of dollars each year.

The water tanker mafia’s prey can be found in slums like Karachi’s Gulshan-Sikanderabad neighborhood, where every morning people buy water from the tankers, lug the plastic jugs back to their homes on wooden carts, then come back three or four more times in the afternoon and evening to buy more.

A family that makes $100 a month can spend as much as a quarter of that on water, which, elsewhere in Pakistan, costs pennies and flows out of household taps.

Water scarcity isn’t the cause. Karachi has a steady water supply, and it has the network of pipes to pump ample water into every neighborhood, rich and poor.

But Karachi is also a city of opportunists forever on the prowl for under-the-table wealth. As municipal officials look the other way, businessmen illegally tap water mains, and use the makeshift hydrants to supply fleets of tankers that then sell water to businesses, factories and neighborhoods at inflated prices. As many as 272 million gallons a day are siphoned off by the trucks.

On a recent sunbaked afternoon, along a dirt lane filled with goats munching on piles of refuse, Momin Khan seethed as he filled another blue jug with water from a cistern replenished every other day by the water tankers.

“We’re poor laborers — we can’t spare this much for water,” said Khan, 27, a glass factory worker. “The water supply lines come right into this neighborhood, but there’s never any water. So I buy the same water that I should be getting through the pipes for free. I’ve got no choice.”

Karachi has nine hydrant locations where water supply companies can legally buy water and fill their tanker trucks. But scattered throughout the city are at least 160 illegal hydrants, said Ashraf Sagar, manager of the Orangi Pilot Project, a private organization that researches water issues in Karachi.

The siphoning takes place around the clock, Sagar said. It’s done in the dead of night, but also in broad daylight.

Along Manghopir Road, a bustling Karachi avenue lined with grease-covered car repair stalls and appliance storefronts, it’s easy to find a pair of tanker drivers standing on top of their trucks, filling up with a large blue hose from an illegal hydrant inside a red-brick building. Armed guards keep outsiders from meddling.

On average, a tanker fills up six times a day, Sagar said, siphoning as much as 41% of the city’s daily water supply, an amount that generates $43 million annually for tanker owners, according to Orangi.

“With this much money involved, it’s clear these are very wealthy people,” Sagar said. “They’re powerful PPP & MQM mafias colluding with corrupt people in the government. So there’s really nothing ordinary Pakistanis can do to stop it.”

Shahnawaz Jadoon, a deputy administrative chief for the Gulshan-Sikanderabad neighborhood, said it was virtually impossible to clamp down on an enterprise that combines the clout of city government and the wealth of Karachi’s powerful business circles.

At times, illegal hydrants are shut down by city officials, only to reopen a week later. Activists said they didn’t know of anyone involved ever being arrested.

“The big reason why people don’t get the water they’re supposed to,” said Jadoon, “is that if they did, this whole system, the tanker mafia and this corrupt network, would shut down.”

alex.rodriguez@

latimes.com

September 7, 2012