Collective Action for Drinking Water in Urban Sindh

The country faces a severe water crisis with surface and groundwater sources depleting at an alarming rate. Riverbeds around the country are drying up, and Himalayan glaciers, the source of much of the water supply, are fast shrinking. Water availability, which stood at 5000 cubic meters per capita per annum in 1951, shrunk to 1017 cubic meters in 2017, and is now getting perilously close to the scarcity threshold of 1000 cubic meters per capita per annum. Climate change, rapid population growth, and mismanagement of the water sector have contributed to the severity of the problem, making Pakistan the third most water-stressed country in the world. Rapid and unplanned urbanization has further compounded the issue. By 2025, nearly 50% of Pakistan will live in urban areas, with Sindh, the second-largest province, being the most urbanized. The province has experienced a rapid increase in its population, with total population expected to reach 70 million or more by 2050. Hyderabad and Sukkur are perhaps the worst examples of unplanned urbanization. Due to severe effects of climate change, the two cities rank among the top three hottest cities in the country with poor water availability. Water availability is defined as the ratio of surface water use to groundwater use, where a large value indicates that water use is more sustainable. Hyderabad and Sukkur have low water availability at 0.4 and 0.9, respectively. Not only are the two cities facing acute water shortage, piped water supplied to households is almost uniformly poor. The study on collective action for drinking water in urban Sindh found that a comprehensive and integrated water policy is absent in the province. Water supplied to households through taps is almost uniformly poor, with existing infrastructure in cities stretched to breaking point. Appropriate pricing remains one of the major barriers to effective and efficient governance of water. Collection of dues is another, creating an unwarranted burden for the taxpayer. The study also found that there are many flaws in designing and developing water supply schemes. The sector is prone to misappropriation of resources, especially when it comes to maintenance and repairs. Water sector projects are complicated, involving subcontractors and implemented in phases, which makes it difficult to apply cost controls. Other common forms of mis-governance are nepotism and political patronage. The piped distribution network in both Hyderabad and Sukkur is old and in dire need of replacement. A large proportion of water is unaccounted for, lost to illegal connections and leaky pipes. Irregular water delivery service means many rely on private vendors or wells bored into the ground to meet their needs. To address the water crisis in urban Sindh, the study recommends improving transparency, addressing pricing and billing issues, ending overlapping responsibilities, promoting partnerships, and monitoring water quality. Improving transparency involves improving access to information for stakeholders, involving the community in the budgeting process, and encouraging scrutiny to ensure efficient allocation of resources. Addressing pricing and billing issues involves revising prices charged for water supply, rationalizing the tariff structure, and adopting alternate modes of payment. Ending overlapping responsibilities involves clearly demarcating areas of responsibility between local/provincial, urban/rural sectors. Promoting partnerships involves developing community-government partnerships, outsourcing ancillary services, and working with university start-ups. Monitoring water quality involves investing in the distribution infrastructure, rebuilding entire pipe networks, and ensuring that the water supply pipes do not pass through waste water sites.