The Rights-Floor Coalition Gains Ground in the Corridor Cities

KARACHI — The argument that started in Karachi's metered courtyards has found a name for itself and a coalition to carry it: the rights-floor. As corridor cities across the water-scarce belt brace for autumn tariff reviews on the desalination lines that ended their summer thirst, a growing bloc of municipal officials, unions and relief groups has coalesced around a single demand — that every household receive a guaranteed minimum of water below which the meter does not run. "Above the floor, price it, trade it, meter it, argue about it," said councilor Nadia Farooqi at a corridor-cities assembly this week. "Below the floor, it is not a market. It is the condition of being alive, and you do not bill a person for that." The rights-floor coalition frames its demand not against the desalination utilities like the Tethys Hydrous Group but around them — a lifeline tier the concession would honor and the market would sit on top of. Utilities warn a floor set too high starves the pipe of the revenue that keeps it running. The coalition answers that a pipe no one can afford is just an expensive drought. The tariff reviews are weeks away. The floor, its backers say, is the line the reviews must start from.