On February 13 the beleaguered civil society suffered another blow when the eminent social worker and OPP (Orangi Pilot Project) director Perveen Rehman was gunned down while returning from work.

While her assassination is still shrouded in mystery, media reports suggest that her colossal work in mapping the leakages in piped water supply and indicating massive water theft threatened the flourishing business of the water tanker mafia in Karachi. She may have earned the ire of the mafia that manipulates and monopolises an abundant supply of water to the city to sell it at exorbitant rates to the masses.

Rather than a civic right, water is a political prop used to garner votes and political gains, especially in Karachi. Many NGOs have offered help in structural development and advocacy, providing data and models for the government to follow, but as urban planner and director projects sustainable initiatives, Farhan Anwar puts it, the work of the civil society in water is not as significant as it is in sanitation. Dr Noman Ahmed at the NED University lists a few commendable initiatives but states that the work has been segmental. “It was not sustained,” he adds.

Many NGOs have been involved in advocacy and awareness of conservation of water while others have helped communities develop and devise their own water supply systems but on an adhoc basis. In Karachi, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has faced the wrath of society for extremely inefficient supply of water to areas and a debilitated infrastructure. The Shehri-CBE has carried out many advocacy interventions in conservation of water. The Hisaar Foundation introduced the Karachi Water Partnership, to develop a liaison between the citizens and the KWSB to work on strategies to conserve water and to develop policy on dealing with water issues. “In the absence of a viable water policy, no civil society or government can fix problems of water supply in Pakistan,” says Simi Kamal of the Hisaar Foundation.

“In Sindh, we mostly deal with surface water,” says Farhan Anwar. “There you need a lot of infrastructure development that includes distribution. The role of NGOs is more evident in Punjab as people there use more ground water. At a small community level, people have access to their own water sources,” he says.

Dr Noman Ahmed believes that civil society’s work in water was not sustained due to many reasons. Lack of a common platform keeps the work scattered. The law and order situation dissuades any sustainable effort. Also, the KWSB has never had a defined strategy to acknowledge the efforts of the civil society because it is used to meet political ends, he adds. Besides, mega projects in water in Karachi have not been people friendly. They have only rendered cosmetic value to the water situation of Karachi.

While some NGOs themselves are accused of seeking a confrontational approach without understanding ground realities, Farhan Anwar thinks that at the end of the day, it’s the government that plays a bigger role as far as water is concerned. “They have a mandate for service delivery,” says Farhan Anwar.

The Water and Sanitation Programme of the World Bank introduced the Citizen Report Cards some years back to gauge and evaluate service delivery issues faced by the KWSB. But as Simi Kamal quoted a World Bank study on water issues of Pakistan, “models in Pakistan are to build, let rot and destroy”.

She believes that there is a severe disconnect between the way the government, the citizens, NGOs and the industrial sector thinks. “There is less thinking on benefit sharing, there is more dialogue on physically sharing the water,” she says.

Dr Noman Ahmed does not see a liaison between the government and the civil society in the near future as far as water is concerned. He thinks that many NGOs work in the water sector because it receives and attracts a lot of donor money. Many NGOs do not let their models be replicated unless they are made the sole facilitators. On the other hand, the KWSB listens to foreign donors or the federal government and not to those who have demonstrated workable solutions for water locally.