QUETTA: A meeting presided over by Balochistan Chief Secretary Mathar Niaz Rana on Sunday took decisions to resolve the problems of power outage and drinking water crisis in Gwadar, Kech and Panjgur of Makran division.

The meeting observed that the power supply issue could not be resolved on a permanent basis until Makran division was connected to the national grid. Presently, Iran is providing power supply to Gwadar and the two other districts of Makran.

The chief secretary said that the provincial government was using all available resources to resolve the water and power issues in Gwadar. He hoped the situation would improve soon as the provincial government was aware of the plight of the people and was serious in solving these problems.

Additional Chief Secretary Home Arshad Majeed, Additional Chief Secretary, Planning and Development, Hafiz Abdul Basit, the general officer commanding of 44 Division, secretary energy, chairman and director general of GDA, commissioner of Makran, CEO of Qesco and the deputy commissioner of Gwadar attended the meeting.

Mr Rana informed the meeting that temporarily supply of 200,000 gallons of water to Gwadar from Sur dam and Ankra dam would start soon.

He directed the PHE and other departments concerned to complete work on Shadi Kour dam as soon as possible to start water supply to Pasni, Gwadar and other areas. He said work would be done on water desalination plants for permanent solution of water supply to Gwadar.

He said that the main reason for power outages in Makran division, including Gwadar, was that the area was not yet connected to the national grid. Supply is currently dependent on Iran.

Chief Secretary Mathar Rana further said that in 2019, Ecnec had given approval to connect Gwadar to the national grid, but the decision had not been implemented.

In this regard, the federal government would be contacted and a request would be made to hand over the work to the Frontier Works Organisation to ensure speedy supply of power to Gwadar from the national grid.

He said generators should be installed to ensure emergency power supply. He ordered setting up of transformer repair workshops in every division so that repair of faulty transformers could be done as soon as possible.

The meeting was informed that the Mines Department had provided two 550 KVA generators for emergency power supply to Gwadar.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd , 2021