InDepth: World Wide Water Mafia #06: Root Causes and Regulatory Failures

IC InDepth Team

Mumbai, 30 August 2019

The widespread prevalence of water theft and smuggling is symptomatic of more profound issues than mere inefficiencies or regulatory gaps.

Jakarta, Indonesia, offers an illustrative example of systemic disincentives within the public utilities sector.

Connecting impoverished households to essential public services, such as water supply, remains hindered by existing disincentives.

Similarly, disadvantaged households often refrain from seeking connections to formal systems due to associated challenges.

This reveals the entrenchment of regulatory capture and corruption within the legal water sector, which not only enables but often directly controls and exacerbates water theft and smuggling dynamics.

Corruption’s Far-Reaching Effects

Corruption operates at various levels, with many water officials succumbing to bribery in exchange for disregarding water regulations.

In India’s urban landscapes, including Delhi, legal mandates dictate that water trucks respond to unconnected communities’ requests within three hours.

However, unless a significant bribe is anticipated, the response is often lacking, illustrating how corruption undermines the enforcement of even basic legal provisions.

Corruption and Collusion: Water Mafia Nexus

Many of the entities known as “water mafias” operating within the city have insidious ties to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).

Corrupt officials within the DJB receive illicit kickbacks from private operators who peddle water at exorbitant rates.

These unscrupulous officials willingly turn a blind eye to the illegal acquisition, smuggling, and resale of water both within the city and in its periphery.

Political Nexus in Pakistan’s Water Crisis

In Pakistan’s Punjab state, an alarming pattern of bribery unfolds. Farmers frequently resort to bribing water officials, aiming to secure water allocations surpassing their legal quotas.

This bribery culture extends to political manipulation, with farmers leveraging political pressure to coerce water officials into unlawful actions.

This cycle of corruption not only benefits large-scale landowners, the country’s feudal elite, but also sharecroppers, both groups capitalizing on this illicit network.

Unfortunately, downstream farmers bear the brunt of this intricate scheme.

Disparity in Impact on Downstream Farmers

Downstream farmers, unlike their upstream counterparts who often utilize water for cash crops like cotton, rice, and sugar cane, mainly depend on subsistence agriculture. This distinction has dire consequences.

Although downstream farmers are subject to flat water fees, they must also yield to the demand for bribes to access water resources. This double burden of payments substantially hinders their agricultural pursuits.

Law enforcement sporadically intervenes in rural water theft, targeting mostly marginalized farmers, who lack adequate safeguards against the influence of powerful political figures.

Pakistani Water Crisis: A Looming Catastrophe

The repercussions of these corrupt practices loom large over Pakistan, the world’s sixth most populous nation.

The nation’s water levels are plummeting at an alarming rate, and the consequences are disastrous.

Pakistan’s predominantly agrarian economy, which sustains a vast majority of its population, faces severe consequences due to dwindling water resources.

The impending catastrophe is exacerbated by predictions that by 2025, Pakistan’s available water supply will be perilously depleted.

Illicit Practices in India’s Water Sector

Corruption pervades India’s water sector, with water officials routinely accepting bribes to turn a blind eye to unauthorized water connections or manipulate meter readings and bills.

The allocation of water contracts is often shrouded in opacity and tainted by corruption. Even more concerning, legislators sometimes bestow water supply contracts upon themselves, further fostering a culture of misconduct.

These unethical practices also breed collusion among price-fixing cartels, creating a highly profitable environment for the unlawful sourcing and trafficking of water.

Emergence of Localized Water Theft

While the instances of water theft and smuggling detailed above primarily occur at the local level, their reach can extend for several kilometers through illegal pipelines and tens of kilometers via water trucks.

As the impact of acute water shortages intensifies in water-scarce regions like South Asia and the Middle East, the stage is set for cross-border water smuggling to emerge.

Analogous to the illegal drug trade, this type of smuggling may traverse contested borders, such as between Pakistan and India, or between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Additionally, the phenomenon might expand to regions like the Middle East, West Africa, or the Sahel.

Inevitably, water smuggling will transition into a cross-border illicit economy, intertwining with other forms of smuggling, organized crime, and geopolitics.

This convergence will usher in new challenges tied to security, governance, and international relations.

Confronting an Uncomfortable Reality

When faced with the challenge of tackling criminalized illegal water distribution systems – which often involve the state itself – officials find themselves entangled in an ethically and politically intricate situation.

Taking decisive action against unlawful water use and smuggling perpetrated by affluent individuals, middle-class households, industries, and large-scale agribusinesses may seem morally straightforward.

However, implementing such crackdowns can prove to be an arduous political task, potentially alienating critical constituencies, clients, and even government backers.

Balancing Policy and Compassion

While disconnecting and disrupting illegal water channels to impoverished slum communities might be politically expedient, it comes with profound ethical implications.

Such actions could jeopardize the well-being and even the survival of these communities, raising concerns not only in terms of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but also the moral principles associated with the right to water.

The fallout from such actions could be substantial, including protests and the opportunistic efforts of water smugglers. Facing water scarcity, many residents in disconnected slums and rural areas might seek to relocate, even if through illegal means, to regions where water monitoring is less stringent.

Unintended Consequences of Enforcement

Yet, curbing the flow of illegal water to impoverished communities has dire consequences.

Such actions can lead to devastating disease outbreaks, like cholera, and foster social unrest and violent demonstrations that reverberate beyond marginalized neighborhoods, affecting the entirety of the city, including its privileged enclaves.

Governments are often unwilling to ensure proper legal water supply to marginalized settlements, yet they are reluctant to shoulder the burden of lives lost due to dehydration.

In certain cases, allowing criminal water mafias, often with political connections, to operate seems to be an easier alternative, further complicating the moral and ethical quandary faced by authorities.

Next: InDepth: World Wide Water Mafia #07: Private Water Providers: A Complex Landscape

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