At the Mercy of the Water MafiaActually the 'water mafia' is just a bunch of entrepreneurs who see a need. and are filling it on mutually satisfactory terms. All made possible because of non-market failure;
... in Delhi, where the official water supply falls short of the city’s needs by at least 207 million gallons each day, according to a 2013 audit by the office of the Indian comptroller and auditor general. A quarter of Delhi’s households live without a piped-water connection; most of the rest receive water for only a few hours each day. So residents have come to rely on private truck owners—the most visible strands of a dispersed web of city councilors, farmers, real estate agents, and fixers who source millions of gallons of water each day from illicit boreholes, as well as the city’s leaky pipe network, and sell the liquid for profit.Why isn't FP applauding?
The mafia defends its work as a community service, but there is a much darker picture of Delhi’s subversive water industry: one of a thriving black market populated by small-time freelance agents who are exploiting a fast-depleting common resource and in turn threatening India’s long-term water security.The water security that falls short of the city's needs by at least 207 million gallons each day, that is.
Mercy, mercy, mercy.
Water is a human right. India should have written it into its constitution.
ReplyDeleteSo the civic/public pipe system leaks. the "mafia" puts buckets under the leaks to salvage the spillage, then carries the filled buckets to the end of the pipes where the official outflow is insufficient (due to leaks) and expects to be paid for their labor.
ReplyDeleteSounds to me like a great way to ensure full employment. Maybe the city of Los Angeles should intentionally drill some holes in their pipes, to give out of work underprivileged willing workers a chance to earn some income...