Karachi Breathes, and Starts to Argue About the Price of Breathing

KARACHI — The water is running, and that is exactly why the argument has started. For three months the city was too thirsty to ask hard questions of the Makran corridor that saved it. Now the taps hold, the panic has drained, and in its place has risen a quieter unease about the terms of the rescue. The desalinated water arrives through infrastructure the Tethys Hydrous Group operates, priced above the free minimum by formulas set far from any Karachi kitchen, and dependent on a chain of energy and finance that runs clear off the edge of the map. "We did not run out of water this summer," said councilman Bilal Ahmed, who has become the argument's loudest voice. "We simply became a city that cannot fail to pay its water bill. Is that sovereignty, or is it a longer leash?" Others answer, sharply, that a leash you can drink from beats a freedom you die of thirst inside. Both sides are right, which is why the fight will last. Karachi is breathing again. The luxury of that first full breath is that the city can finally afford to wonder what it cost.