Suleman Hashim
Gwadar: Gwadar town, the starting point of much touted China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), has ran out of drinking water, once again.
Water level has fallen to below danger level in Ankara Kaur dam and this has created shortage of water in Gwadar. Ankara Kaur Dam, which is filled by rain water, is the main source of water supply to Gwadar town, Jeewani and Pasni.
Last year at this time, a similar water shortage arose in Gwadar and no actions were taken by government to permanently solve the matter.
Recently, Chief Secretary Balochistan chaired a meeting in Gwadar about Water Shortage issue. He directed Public Health Engineering (PHE) to supply water to Gwadar using water tankers from Shadi Kaur dam and Belar dam.
Shakeel Baloch, Executive Engineer (X-En) PHE said in the meeting that 1.5 million gallons of water will be supplied to Gwadar from alternative means on daily basis.
PHE tankers carry water from Shadi Kaur dam and Belar dams and supply to people of Gwadar through the water pipeline system. However for commercial purposes people have to buy water and one tanker costs at least Rs. 15,000.
Deputy Commissioner Gwadar, Tufail Baloch, in the same meeting expressed concerns over the Water Shortage situation and warned that a catastrophic situation can emerge if no alternative measures are taken for supply of water.
It must be noted that Ankara Kaur dam was built in 1991 at a cost of Rs. 540 million and today government of Balochistan has released Rs. 640 million to PHE for water supply via tankers in Gwadar. If one dam like Ankara Kaur was built in past then situation would have been different, claim citizens of Gwadar.
Government has almost spent Rs. 980 million on construction of a desalination plant but it’s still not functional due to operational issues and problems which are kept secret.
People of Gwadar urge that best way to solve Gwadar water crisis is to build new dams on emergency basis and avoid wastage of money on desalination plants and water supply through tankers.
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