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Coastal Megacity Karachi Is Running Out of Water (earther.com)

The Pakistani megacity of Karachi, home to more than 20 million people, is among the most water-stressed cities in the world, only able to meet half of its daily water demand. From a report: Karachi requires 1,100 million of gallons per day (mgd), but only receives 550 mgd, according to the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB). Karachi's water is sourced from the Indus River via Keenjhar Lake, which sits more than 90 miles away from the city. The water shortage in Karachi is linked to myriad factors including climate change, mismanagement of water resources, and corruption. Most of all, however, a rising population increasing at a rate of 4.5 percent a year creates a strain on the finite water supply. Pakistan ranks in the top ten of countries worst affected by climate change, and water shortages are likely to deepen in both intensity and frequency in the coming decade.

20 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. Quintupling your population is not sustainable by Venona2018 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Pakistan has gone from 40 million people in 1955 to 200 million in 2018. That is a 5 times increase in less than 65 years. Is there anyone who thinks that is sustainable? http://www.worldometers.info/w...

    1. Re: Quintupling your population is not sustainable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Each of Berlin's residents uses an average of 110 litres of water per day. (Or for the americans, about 29.3 gallons).
      In Portland for example, residents use 50 gallons per day. But honeslty there is no comparison - there is NO water shortage in Portland, in fact they have more water than they know what to do with.

      As do the majority of US cities.

      Phoenix/Las Vegas will soon suffer the same fate as Karachi. The Colorado river is drying up and being used more as there are more people and swimming pools and less water to go around.

    2. Re:Quintupling your population is not sustainable by gweihir · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Harsh as it sounds, that is exactly the core problem: If you bred like crazy in a resource-starved situation, you will eventually run into mass die-off that normalizes your population numbers to something far lower. Of course, this also comes with a civilization collapse when it happens to a human population. In theory, a human population can avoid this catastrophe by restricting its own breeding to what is sustainable, but apparently this one here cannot.

      Or in other words, they are going towards a horrible catastrophe, all of their own making.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    3. Re: Quintupling your population is not sustainable by Zorpheus · · Score: 4, Informative

      And let's make clear the relation to the numbers in the summary: Karachi still has about as much water per resident as Berlin is consuming. They don't have a lack of water, they have bad management of it and are wasting it.

    4. Re:Quintupling your population is not sustainable by Kjella · · Score: 3, Interesting

      They can't just step in and say "Hey, this is actually turning out to be BAD for us now, please stop!" They're kinda stuck with it. It takes generations to ease a religious body through a major change, and unfortunately this whole "climate change" thing and "global population booms" has come up a faster than these religious groups can change course to match.

      I can only speak for Norway but... 105 years since women got the vote. 57 years since the first female priest. 46 years since homosexuality was decriminalized. 40 years since legalized abortion. 25 years ago since the first female bishop and gay partnership law. 9 years ago since gay marriage. That's all (barely) in living memory. The church has shown an amazing ability to morph into a quasi-spiritual organization for all people who believe in souls and an afterlife as their worldly teachings have been stripped away and the fire and brimstone parts tucked away as not very PC.

      The truth is that it's not their teachings on condoms and birth control that makes the most difference, it's their position on women. If you look at all the shittiest countries the men work, the women are at home popping out 5-6-7 children and raising them to adulthood. They don't have jobs, they don't have education, many of them aren't even literate... but they can breed and no matter how dirt poor people are today we don't let kids starve to death. Once women start having their own career, birth rates drop like a rock. Working mom with three kids is doable, six kids is almost impossible.

      And all religions are quite capable of adjusting their teachings to accommodate that. Take an Islamic theocracy like Iran, nearly 70% of university graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are women. They got a birth rate of about 1.7, same as many western countries. If they can do it, any country can. Take a look at Rosling's "peak child" statistics video to see how much some countries really did change in 50 years, both Christian nations, Islamic nations and Eastern religion nations.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  2. Climate Change? by DatbeDank · · Score: 3, Informative

    Pretty sure the order of causes are corruption and water mismanagement followed by climate change being the crack that drained their fresh water supply.

    1. Re:Climate Change? by gravewax · · Score: 4, Insightful

      corruption, water mismanagement AND a massive population explosion over the last half century. climate change on top of all that I doubt has even a measurable effect by comparison.

  3. Re: Quintupling your population is not sustainabl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Right, because they get their water from the same place.
    You fucking idiots will do anything to try and blame shit on the US.

  4. Re: Leave or deal with it by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Informative

    It goes back into the ocean, and is (rather quickly) diluted so that there is no observable difference. Near the output 'vent' there is higher salt content in the water, which can affect the environment right around the output area, but that can be mitigated through various techniques.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  5. A far better story: by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 5, Informative

    A far better story: Parched for a price: Karachi's water crisis

    Quotes:

    Perween Rehman: "It is not the poor who steal the water. It is stolen by a group of people who have the full support of the government agencies, the local councillors, mayors and the police; all are involved."

    "Shortly before her murder, Rehman spoke to a documentary crew, who were making a film about her work."

    More:

    "The scale of the theft is staggering. ... stealing water in Karachi is an industry worth more than half a billion dollars." (each year)

    "Ali Asghar, 75, says he still has to pay bills to the utility company for water that never comes in the pipes."

    Another problem:
    Family size.

    "... Farzana Bibi, 40, ... manages a household of 5 people on an income of roughly $190 a month.

    "... his entire household of 17 people is dependent on water bought from tankers."

    Al Jazeera is generally a good place for such news. However, this story has no date. It was apparently written in 2017.

    So, the parent comment is exactly correct.

  6. Re:Obvious free market solution by Bearhouse · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ah, sadly not. People either pay nothing for water (they steal it) or they already pay a fortune to the "tanker mafia".

    http://www.circleofblue.org/20...

  7. Exceeded carrying capacity by sickre · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Cut off all emigration from Pakistan and let them deal with their own problems. Overpopulation has its consequences. China knew it and implemented the One Child Policy to great success. Europe (and colonies) and East Asia have dealt with their population problems and now have stable or declining rates. If South/West Asia, the Mid East and Africa can't figure it out themselves, we're not going to bail them out by taking millions of their excess people.

    1. Re:Exceeded carrying capacity by gweihir · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Harsh as it sounds, getting population growth under control and eventually down to zero is a critical step for survival of a nation today. Looks like Pakistan will be one of those that do not make it. Even if they can fix the water issue this time, if they continue to grow like crazy, the problem will just return far worse in the near future until it cannot be fixed anymore.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  8. Population growth is just momentum, actually by Moritz+Moeller+-+Her · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The number of children per woman in Pakistan has decreased rapidly in the last decades to now around 3 children per woman (2.3 is required for population to just be static in the long run). The only reason the population still grows is many children growing up and having (on average 2-3) kids of their own. There is no statistic link between religion and population growth.

    See here: https://www.google.com/publicd...

    Or if you do only trust the US, check the CIA:

    https://www.cia.gov/library/pu...

    --
    Moritz
    1. Re:Population growth is just momentum, actually by Moritz+Moeller+-+Her · · Score: 3, Interesting

      My original source is this highly recommended and entertaining Ted Talk youtube video from Hans Gosling - "Religions and Babies".

      https://www.google.com/url?sa=...

      --
      Moritz
  9. Re:Pakistan == Mud People by azcoyote · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You got it! Karachi is home to more than 20 megapersons and is only able to meet about 5 decidemands of water per day.

    --
    Incipiamus, fratres, servire Domino Deo, quia hucusque vix vel parum in nullo profecimus.
  10. Re: Pakistan == Mud People by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The problem is in units of people. 10 million too many. Good luck trying to save the planet by banning plastic grocery bags while the third world is breeding like locust.

  11. Re: Pakistan == Mud People by hey! · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes but is it half the water they need in gallons? We Americans don't understand metric fractions.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  12. Re: Leave or deal with it by swb · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They've been relining the water mains here to limit leaks and pipe failures. It's been going on across the city for several years now, and this is a really well managed, self-funded (ie, water fees pay for the water system) water system that's mostly newer than 120 years (good chunks maybe less than 75 years old), run by a more or less functional city government.

    Can you imagine what Karachi's water plant is like? I'll bet just creating documentation as to where the pipes are would be a decade-long odyssey and it probably wouldn't uncover miles of unauthorized extensions and tapping into the system.

    Fixing the leaks is a good idea, but I'd bet in Karachi building a desal plant is probably actually more cost effective compared to detangling the mess they have.

  13. Re: That's nothing by Barsteward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    At least he has a nickname to which we can attribute posts to. Moaning about a "troll" as an AC doesn't quite work.

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)