UNICEF estimates that 53,000 Pakistani children under five die every year from diarrhoea linked to poor water and sanitation, and that around 70 percent of households drink bacterially contaminated water. In Karachi, where piped supply arrives for a few hours at a time and every home stores water for days, a large part of that risk sits in the family’s own tank.

This guide is about kids’ water safety in Karachi in practical terms: why children are affected first, where they actually come into contact with tank water, what to watch for, and what a parent can do this week. It is written by a tank cleaning company, not by doctors, so for anything medical the advice is simple: see your paediatrician early.

Why children are affected first

• Smaller bodies, faster dehydration. A bout of diarrhoea that an adult shrugs off can dehydrate a toddler within a day.
• Developing immunity. Children under five have had less exposure and less time to build defences against common gut infections.
• More exposure per kilo. Relative to their weight, children drink more water than adults, and they swallow bath water, suck wet fingers and drink from whichever tap is nearest.
• Repeat infections add up. UNICEF links repeated episodes of diarrhoea to stunting, which affects almost 44 percent of children in Pakistan.

The illnesses that matter most

The World Health Organization lists diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio among the diseases carried by microbiologically contaminated drinking water. Three deserve a Karachi parent’s particular attention.

Diarrhoeal disease

This is the most common result of unsafe water and the one behind the UNICEF figure above. Most episodes are mild, but in infants the danger is dehydration, not the infection itself. Keep oral rehydration salts (ORS) at home and see a doctor quickly if a young child cannot keep fluids down, becomes unusually sleepy, or passes blood.

Typhoid

Karachi was the centre of the extensively drug-resistant (XDR) typhoid outbreak that began in Sindh in 2016. By December 2018, WHO had recorded 5,274 XDR cases, 69 percent of them in Karachi. In response, Pakistan became the first country to add the typhoid conjugate vaccine to routine childhood immunisation, starting in Sindh in 2019. If you are not sure your child has had it, ask your doctor or the nearest EPI centre. The vaccine reduces risk; it does not replace clean water. Our article on typhoid, E. coli and stomach infections in Karachi covers how these infections reach a household.

Naegleria fowleri

This is rare but almost always fatal, and Karachi sees deaths from it most years. Sindh recorded five in 2025. The amoeba does not infect through drinking. It enters through the nose when warm, unchlorinated water is forced up it during bathing, swimming or ablution. After the 2025 cases the Sindh health department advised residents to clean underground and overhead tanks at least once a year before summer and to keep water chlorinated. For children, that means supervised bathing, no jumping or dunking in tank-fed tubs and paddling pools, and a tank that is kept clean.

Where children actually meet tank water

Many families give their children filtered or boiled water to drink and assume the job is done. The rest of the house still runs on water straight from the tank:

• Brushing teeth and rinsing the mouth
• Bath time, when small children swallow water and get it up their noses
• Washing fruit, salad, bottles, teats and sippy cups
• Hand washing before meals
• Ice, and drinks made in a hurry from the kitchen tap
• School, tuition centres and relatives’ homes, where you do not control the tank at all

For infants on formula, always prepare feeds with water that has been boiled, and wash and sterilise bottles with boiled water as well. A filter jug is not a substitute for boiling at this age.

What a neglected tank adds to the problem

Supply water in Karachi is often contaminated before it reaches the house, as we explain in our guide to what happens to KWSB water before it reaches your tank. A tank that has not been cleaned makes this worse in three ways. Sludge on the floor gives bacteria somewhere to live between fills. A slippery layer of biofilm on the walls protects them from the little chlorine left in the water. And a rooftop tank in a Karachi summer keeps the water warm, which is when bacteria multiply fastest.

An open or badly fitting lid adds mosquitoes. The WHO’s dengue guidance tells households to cover, empty and clean domestic water storage containers regularly for this reason.

Signs to take seriously

In your child	In your water or tank
Repeated stomach upsets or loose motions with no obvious food cause	Cloudy, yellowish or greenish water, especially first thing in the morning
Two or more family members ill in the same week	An earthy, musty or rotten-egg smell
Fever that keeps returning	Grit or fine sediment in buckets and the washing machine filter
Skin rashes or sore eyes after bathing	A slimy feel on the tank wall, or a lid that does not close

None of these proves the tank is the cause, and clear water is not proof of safe water. They are reasons to act. The full list is in our article on signs your drinking water may be making you sick.

Kids’ water safety in Karachi by age

Age	Main exposure	What to do
0 to 6 months	Formula and bottle washing	Boil all water for feeds; sterilise bottles and teats; exclusive breastfeeding avoids the issue entirely
6 months to 2 years	First cups of water, weaning foods, bath water swallowed	Boiled and cooled water only; wash fruit and bowls in boiled or filtered water; supervise baths
2 to 5 years	Drinking from any tap, hands in mouth, paddling pools	Make one drinking source the rule; hand washing with soap; do not fill pools from an uncleaned tank
School age	School coolers and taps, tuition centres, street drinks	Send a filled bottle from home; teach them not to drink from wash-basin taps

The first two years carry the most risk. If money or time is short, concentrate effort there: boiled water for everything that goes into the child’s mouth, and a tank cleaned on time.

Houses, flats and tanker water

How your home gets and stores water changes what you should worry about.

• Houses with their own tanks: you control the schedule. The usual gaps are a forgotten underground tank and a rooftop lid that no longer seals.
• Flats with shared tanks: you depend on the union or builder. One missed cleaning affects every child in the building. Our guide to responsibility for apartment water tanks explains how to raise it.
• Homes that rely on tankers: the source of each load is unknown, so clean more often and never give tanker water to a child without boiling it.
• Homes on borehole water: usually salty and hard, sometimes contaminated by nearby sewers. An RO unit helps with the salt; the tank still needs cleaning.

A parent’s checklist

1. Boil or properly filter everything a child drinks, including water for formula, and keep the boiled water in a clean covered container.
2. Find out when the tank was last cleaned. If nobody can remember, treat it as overdue.
3. Check both lids today. They should close fully, with no cracks and with mesh over the vent and overflow.
4. Clean on a schedule. Every four to six months suits most houses, and every three months is sensible with an infant at home or a tanker-fed tank. See how often to clean a water tank in Karachi.
5. Clean after the rains. Underground tanks are at their most exposed during the monsoon. Our monsoon tank guide explains what to check.
6. In flats, ask the union. Shared tanks are a shared responsibility, and someone should be able to tell you the date of the last cleaning.
7. Ask the school. Children spend half their day there. Our piece on water hygiene in Karachi’s schools lists the questions worth asking.
8. Teach the habit. Older children should know which tap or cooler is for drinking and that bath water is not.

“We have a filter at home”

Keep it, and keep changing the cartridges on time. A filter treats what passes through one tap. It does nothing for the bathroom, the bucket or the kitchen sink, and a dirty tank clogs it sooner. We compare the two in why filtered water is not enough.

How a professional cleaning helps, and whether it is safe for children

A proper cleaning removes what rinsing cannot: jet washing at 3,000+ PSI strips biofilm from the walls, a vacuum takes the sludge out rather than stirring it, and the surfaces are disinfected and rinsed before refilling. The steps are set out on our cleaning procedure page.

Parents usually ask about the disinfectant. We use silver-stabilised hydrogen peroxide, which breaks down into water and oxygen, and the tank is rinsed until the water runs clear before it is put back into use. There is more detail in our article on silver hydrogen peroxide disinfection. Once the tank has refilled, the water can be used as normal for the whole family. Keep boiling or filtering what children drink, because a clean tank cannot fix the supply that fills it.

Families in the east of the city are served by our Gulshan and Jauhar branch and those in the south by our DHA and Clifton branch. For a standard house you can get a price in a minute from the online calculator.

Frequently asked questions

Is boiled water enough to keep my child safe?

For drinking, boiling is the most reliable household method against germs. It does not help with bathing, tooth brushing or washing bottles unless you use boiled water for those too, which is why the tank still matters.

How often should the tank be cleaned if there is a baby in the house?

We suggest every three months while there is an infant at home, and straight after any flooding, discoloured water or a long supply break.

Can my child use the water on the day the tank is cleaned?

Yes, once the tank has been rinsed and refilled. Store a few buckets and some drinking water beforehand, because the tank is out of use for a few hours during the work.

My child keeps getting stomach infections. Is it the tank?

It may be one of several causes, including food, school and hand hygiene. See your doctor first. Checking and cleaning the tank removes one likely source and is easy to rule out.

Is bottled water safer for children than boiled tank water?

A sealed bottle from a reputable brand is generally safe to drink. Properly boiled water is equally safe and far cheaper. Neither covers bathing, brushing or bottle washing, so the tank still matters.

Should I worry about bath water for a baby?

Babies swallow bath water and get it on their faces. Use water from a clean tank, keep it out of the nose and mouth as far as you can, and for newborns many parents add boiled water to the bath.

What is the single most useful thing a parent can do?

Boil or filter every drop a young child drinks, and put the tank on a fixed cleaning schedule so it is never a question of memory.

Sources

Figures in this article were checked in October 2026 against the following:

• UNICEF Pakistan: Water, sanitation and hygiene
• WHO: Drinking-water fact sheet
• WHO Disease Outbreak News, 27 December 2018: Typhoid fever, Pakistan
• WHO EMRO: Pakistan first country to introduce new typhoid vaccine into routine immunization
• Geo News, 13 September 2025: Naegleria claims another life in Karachi, toll hits five in Sindh
• WHO: Dengue fact sheet

About Khan Tank Cleaning

This guide is published by Khan Tank Cleaning, a Karachi water tank cleaning company founded in 2005 by Mateen Khan. We work from two branches, DHA Phase 2 and Gulshan-e-Iqbal, and you can read more about the company or contact either branch at any hour. Call or WhatsApp 0333 0293174 (DHA) or 0340 2717530 (Gulshan).