Amid declining demand, Pakistan’s ‘mashkis’ slake thirst during Ramadan

Mohammad Ramzan fills a large goatskin bag with water before carrying it up several flights of stairs for families without running water in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city. For more than four decades he has been a mashki, or water bearer, a centuries-old profession now in decline as water companies and tankers increasingly supply residents. But during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, water bearers are still in high demand.