GWADAR: Gwadar, whose deep sea port is the terminal point of the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is fast emerging as a city of great strategic importance in the region. Yet this evolving city suffers from huge civic problems, including extreme scarcity of potable water.
Water is a rare commodity in Gwadar and its adjoining areas which often depend on water sources, located hundreds of kilometres away from the city.
Residents of the city say their water supplies are too haphazard, restricted to just an hour every week. But sometimes supplies are available only after two weeks. The entire population depends on rain-filled Ankara Kaur Dam on the outskirts of Gwadar.
However, Mubarak Ali, who works in a hotel, recalls a time a few years back when the situation was even worse: women used to carry pots for miles to collect water for their domestic needs.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, Ali said the population of the city was galloping due to the influx of people from other parts of the country but the government was moving too slowly in providing amenities to the population.
According to a part-time journalist Behram Baloch, water is really a precious commodity in Gwadar. To illustrate the point he cites the example of an FIR being registered in 2015 against some people for stealing five cans of water from a house.
In some areas, he says, water is supplied after two weeks, forcing people to utilise every drop of water with extreme care. “People borrow money in other areas but people here are forced to borrow water at times,” he said.
At the same time, he appreciated the government’s effort in 2012 to provide Rs430 million worth water to the residents of Gwadar and Jiwani through water-tanks from Tallar and its adjoining areas when there was a serious water crisis after drying up of the dam.
Gwadar’s Executive Engineer Public Health Shakeel Baloch, who is responsible for supplying water to the residents, outlines mass migration, urbanisation, and lack of rain as factors behind the water scarcity in Gwadar and its adjacent areas.
He said water had remained a primary issue for the residents due to their dependence on rain.
“Only one-week’s water is left in the Ankara dam. This situation can cause a severe water shortage in the coming months,” he said, adding that current the supply of water is 3-3.5 Million Gallons Per Day (MGD), whereas the requirement is of 8.3MGD.
He was of the view that the dam built in 1995 was supposed to cater to the needs of 20,000 to 25,000 people and had a lifespan of 20 years. However, the population of the city had now exceeded 0.2 million.
He said currently the dam was filled with 70% silt leaving behind the dead storage of only 6,000 acre feet out of its total 17,000 acre feet.
Mir Hamal Kalmati, an MPA from Gwadar, demanded that the provincial government connect Gwadar through a pipeline to Sword or Mirani or ShadiKhor Dam since it is the basic need of the people of the port city.
“The cost of a private water tanker stands at Rs6,000. Not everyone can easily pay that amount while at present extra revenue is also spent on water tankers by the government,” he said, adding that the total capacity of Sword Dam is 47 thousand acre feet.
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