GWADAR: A severe shortage of drinking water has hit Gwadar which has been in the headlines these days for its deep sea port project and being an important point of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The shortage occurred because of the drying up of Ankara Dam, the main source of supply to the city.

However, departments concerned appear to be unmoved by the crisis and no effort is being made to ease the situation despite claims made at different levels that Gwadar would be developed as a modern city and commercial hub.

The city has a population of around 90,000 and most of its people earn their livelihood by fishing in the Arabian Sea. People of Gwadar had pinned hopes on Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, who belongs to their Makran division, to end the shortage by building storage projects.

Now that Dr Baloch has completed his tenure as chief minister and is scheduled to hand over the post to Senior Provincial Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri, a severe water crisis has emerged, reviving memories of a shortage which hit the city four years ago.

“The government has not learnt a lesson from the experience of four years ago when one gallon of water was sold for Rs1,000. Water was brought from distant places and people had no option but to purchase it from the tanker mafia at an exorbitant price,” said Juma Baloch, a local resident.

“Even now, tankers are bringing water from Bilar dam, some 80km from Gwadar,” he said.

Mir Hammal Kalmati, a member of Balochistan Assembly from Gwadar, said that the city was facing a “Karbala-like” situation but “coalition partners of the provincial government are busy in distribution of portfolios instead of paying attention to people’s problems”.

“Gwadar’s desalination plant does not have the capacity to purify sea water in large quantity to meet the city’s requirements,” he said.

Four years ago, he said, the provincial government had taken steps on a war-footing basis to deal with a similar situation.

“But the present government has left people at the mercy of the tanker mafia which cannot meet the requirement of the city.”

Efforts made by the government to solve the problem met with failure. The provincial government had allocated Rs490 million for water supply to Gwadar and adjoining area four years ago. The construction of Sod dam, which was started 14 years ago, has not been completed yet.

The government installed a desalination plant at a cost of Rs1 billion in the Karwat area of Gwadar but it is yet to become functional.

Executive Engineer of the public health engineering department, Shakeel Ahmed Baloch, confirmed suspension of water supply from Ankara Dam. “The dam has dried up because its catchment area has not received any rain over the past three years.”

The dam, he said, supplied three million gallons of water a day to Gwadar and adjoining areas, including Jewani, Peshkan, Sur Bandar, Ganz and Bal Nagor.

“We have made alternative arrangements to get water from Suntsar but the supply is not adequate to cater to the need of people,” the official said

The provincial government had provided Rs15 million for supplying water to affected areas of Gwadar through water tankers, he said, adding that his department was planning to rent 100 tankers.

But official sources said that tanker owners had refused to supply water at the “low” rate fixed by the government.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2015