This source estimates that it would cost a family of Karachi squatters about $1 a week to buy soap, which amounts to about 7 percent of the average family's weekly income. I am suspicious of this number, which seems excessively high based on my last shopping trip to a Connecticut supermarket. It may be that this is the cost if a family buys the soap at a local store, but I doubt that soap purchased in bulk for distribution by an aid agency costs anywhere near $1 a week. An additional problem and potential cost, however, is access to water, since soap without water isn't worth much.