New tech helps water flow to Pakistan's capital Karachi

Syed Mansoor is retired and, along with his wife, provides full-time care for their 24-year-old autistic son in Karachi.

Constant running water is not a given here.

Sourced from the Indus river and the Hub dam, Karachi gets approximately 650 million gallons of water per day, while demand sits at nearly 1080 million gallons per day, according to the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board.

The shortfall means reduced and irregular supply to many of the city's neighbourhoods.

Pakistan ranks 14th among the 17 ‘extremely high baseline water stress’ countries of the world, according to the non-profit global research organisation, World Resources Institute.

Now a new system devised by Asani.io, a Karachi startup, is providing hope for many families and businesses across the city.

Asani.io has developed a system which attaches sensors inside the water mains and connects them to automated systems in houses and businesses which in turn switch on electric motors that fill up storage tanks automatically, whenever water starts flowing in the mains.

This reduces water wastage, optimises utility and improves the overall quality of lives for the people.

Mansoor greatly appreciates how Asani's automation system has enabled his family to live more fulfilled and less stressed lives, enabling them to take better care of their son.

“Our life has changed in a way where the time we previously spent waiting for water to come in the main line, there was no schedule, which was very disturbing for us," he says.

"However, since we got the system installed, it automatically detects when the water is in the main line and starts filling up the tanks, we can now spend the same time doing other things, our family life has also improved. We also got rid of that constant worry, about if we're going to have water or not.”

In the public water mains, the supply is short, usually just a few hours in a day, and on an irregular basis. Most families often leave a tap open in their house to see if and when water is being supplied in the mains to then quickly turn on the electric motors and fill up the storage tanks.

Many families and businesses resort to buying water from commercial water wells, delivered by a steady stream of water tankers.

At Asani's office, the team is busy planning domestic installations for the next day, readying equipment, checking installation kits and drawing up last minute plans.

The system has so far been installed in 1,000 homes and a few businesses.

“The overall requirement is, if you talk about Karachi, 1100 million gallons per day and 650 is max that is being provided, this is already half of the shortfall. So there's no possible way, everybody is going to get water, right," says founder and CEO of Asani, Ansab Naqvi.

"So this way, people are wasting, like two or three hours on a daily basis, just to get their water tanks filled, they have to call (water) tankers, they have to maintain suction pumps, so that they can get the water from the supply lines because pressure is not being maintained by the supplier side. So that's how it creates a huge inequity in the distribution areas.”

An independent reviewer, Farukh Mazhar, Director of F&M, a testing and certification company, says Asani's water and energy management systems are proving vital.

“They (Asani) are into IOT systems, they are managing the utilities and water management and the other utility, electricity and other management system, which is the need of the day,” he says.

“And because of the cost (of production) involved in Pakistan and if you compare with the cost of Europe or America or wherever, there's a vast difference and when we serve the world with our prices, its always a competitive price."

Karachi is Pakistan’s largest city and financial capital. In 2023 it was named as one the least liveable around the world in the Global Liveability study, ranking 169th out of 173 cities. Residents quoted the water supply as one of the main difficulties.