ABSTRACT
Half of Karachi's population depends for its livelihood on the informal sector and receives all the civic services and amenities through the rent paid out to various extortionist mafias. While the poor pay for all the services they receive, the government does not receive what the poor are willing to pay. This creates the structural foundation of the financial patronage system. Karachi's poor have been deprived of access to clean drinking water for a very long time. The issue drew the attention of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, provincial and local government authorities, bilateral and multilateral donors, national and international NGOs, and international financial institutions in the 1990s. The poor pay for all services they receive but the formal economic, political and justice systems do not have capacity to deliver to them or integrate their informal delivery systems in the formal economy. Communities and CBOs are constantly engaged in investing in the development of water supply and sanitation infrastructure.
