Last week, I called my cousin in Pakistan. He is visiting Karachi and was complaining about how often the water runs out there. At one point, he'd been in the middle of washing his face when the faucet ran dry! Why does Karachi have such a bad water shortage problem? Because of its notorious water tanker mafia.
Water is supposed to be provided by a state-run institution, the KWSB, but inadequate supply has led to private vendors selling water at exorbitant prices. Additionally, the tanker mafia will illegally steal water from government-owned pumps, then sell it back to citizens.
The problem's gotten worse because Karachi elected officials are idealogical "shirkers" - many now collude with the mafia. Karachi politics is strongly divided along ethnic lines. Politicians of different ethnicities will collaborate with the tanker mafia and tell voters the relationship will be used to divert water to their neighborhoods: they take advantage of voter ignorance to shirk.
In reality, the water either goes to their own homes, or to other interest groups in the party apparatus. In a system as corrupt as Pakistan's, the support of those officials is more important than the average voter's, anyways. Selling water is also lucrative: in Karachi's economy, it is akin to selling gold.
Voters appear to be less ignorant as the situation continues to worsen, and mafia connections apparently do little to boost candidate votes. Still, the mafia is unlikely to disappear any time soon.
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