The time is coming when regional and international conflicts will be about water supply since water touches nearly every aspect of life. Water is becoming a scarce commodity everywhere including Balochistan (Pakistan), where environmental challenges are at a peak.Most of the poor (Quetta, Pakistan) pay high prices for water from private vendors or, with their labour, collect free water from distant sources. Tragically, all the money paid to private water vendors could easily fund an adequate public piped water system. Imaginative tariffs for metered supply would be needed to ensure the poor were not excluded. The overall objective of the study is to discover gaps between demand and supply by collecting and analysing secondary and primary data related to cost recovery.From a survey of urban water users and water vendors in Quetta, Pakistan, about 40% of respondents have access to a piped supply. However the supply is irregular and unreliable. 50% percent of connections receive water for five or more hours per week but 25% have less than two hours supply per week. 92% percent of respondents thought water should be free. The very small monthly charge for an unmetered connection is PKR12 ($US0.17) but 50% of the connected respondents never pay, citing unreliability and un-affordability, and there is no mechanism for enforcement of payments. Water vendors (mainly using road tankers) deliver about 10Ml (mega litre) per day with a charge of about PKR1 ($US0.0.014) per 10 litres. The inequity and economic absurdity of the situation is obvious. Monies currently paid to water vendors would easily fund the operation of a potentially safe, reliable, piped water supply system for all. However, due to the very low payment collection, the water supply body cannot maintain its inadequate system. Construction of a universal self funding piped and metered supply system would seem to be the logical solution. However, before self funding could be realised, a major public education program would be needed to teach the population about the real cost of water and to inform the legislators of the need for enforcing water charges.
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