The coastal town of Balochistan, Gwadar, in recent years, has been the gravity of attention both regionally and internationally for it being the launching pad of the much acclaimed CPEC project. Development of Gwadar has been the foremost priority of the successive provincial and federal government during past decades.

However, the indigenous patriotic populace of Gwadar is facing the unbelievable lack of drinking water. Myopic insights, misplaced priorities, lack of technical expertise, and interdepartmental animosity are the attributable elements of the disgusting contemporary water crisis.

A crisis developed when the only water source for Gwadar, the Akra dam, dried up because of scanty rainfall for the last two years. Since April, 2017, the entire population of the Gwadar district has been dependent on water bowsers, which is fetching water from the Mirani Dam located 100 miles from Gwadar town, in the Kech district. To supply Gwadar, along with other villages in the area (from Jiwani to Kalmat), a single water bowser needs to cover a distance of 300 km, and the whole exercise costs above 6 million per day to the government exchequer.

Both the provincial and federal governments have failed to face the situation. The approach of the provincial government has been reactive and, in many ways, passive. There has been no planning or anticipation of the coming water crisis because of scanty rainfall in the preceding years.

The billions of yearly grants from the federal government were placed at the disposal of Gwadar Development Authority (GDA). They were invested irrationally and without long-term planning to meet the growing demand of the port city. Intriguingly, the amount was spent almost on all sectors except electricity and water. If ten percent of the amount had been invested in water, then there would not have been such severe issues with water availability.

Both provincial and federal authorities invest huge sums in the earth-filled dams in the district as a remedy for the lack of water supply. This is an extremely myopic strategy. The Akra dam, which was constructed in the year of 1992, has completed its 20 years lifespan long ago. Even at its full capacity,

it was barely sufficient for one-third of Gwadar. In recent years, Gwadar and its surrounding areas witnessed burgeoning urbanization owing to the economic increase and job opportunities. The Sawad dam has just been completed and works for establishing a pipeline network for water supply are still underway. Shadi Kaur dam at Pasni, with a cost of around 0.7 billion rupees has been recently completed, and Hingol dam, with a value of 0.9 billion rupees, is under construction at Ormara. However, for the purpose of fulfilling the water needs of the district,

the earth-filled dams provide no real solution. Primarily, the Mekran region is situated in an area with few downpours, and the dams are not filled sufficiently to provide for the peoples’ needs. Secondly, dams developed from huge spending would not survive very long; the seasonal ravines and their many tributaries on which the dams depend generate flash-floods, which causes massive siltation, minimizing the lifespans of the dams. Besides, reservoir water is not hygienic for human consumption.

The obvious example of the Mirani Dam was altogether ignored while initiating dam projects in the Gwadar district. The Mirani Dam has caused more harm than good because it was built with a cost of above ten billion. It was significantly silted up in the first ten years, and now it can only retain one-fourth of its postulated capacity.

The involvement of many departments in one project is also causing confusion, delays, and waste of resources. The Sawad Dam was initially planned and constructed by the Provincial Irrigation Department. Currently, Gwadar Development Authority is laying the pipeline, and it will ultimately be handed over to the Public Health Engineering department for operational and maintenance purposes.

In the contemporary circumstance, the earth-filled dams, with limited lifespans coupled with a marginal downpour and the desalination plant with no departmental technical skills for O&M, is providing no enduring solution of water to the community and government alike.

From natural dependencies to technological and under extreme pressure from some political and social groups, the government reluctantly tried to include some technology-based project for the long-term solution of the water crisis. Three Desalination plants are being considered. However, one of them, the Karwart plant, has become a costly misadventure; it remained intermittently functional with a considerable cost and mostly remained disfunctional. Here comes the element of inter-departmental rivalry.

The plant was initially planned by Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department; the contract was grabbed by Balochistan Development Authority (BDA). However, after completion, it was again handed over to PHE for operational purposes. The remaining two plants located at Jiwani and Pasni coastal town are dormant, and machinery is becoming rusted. The PHE department lacks technical expertise and skills persons required to be called upon from other provinces for minor repair and maintenance. A minute fault leads to dysfunction for months.

The people of Gwadar indispensably deserve to be provided the basic needs of life in 21st century. They desperately need water for drinking and domestic consumption. The government initiatives so far failed to alleviate the sufferings of the people. Interdepartmental frictions,

the fallacy in the feasibility plans for the dams, lack of technological know-how, and perhaps the lack of will to improve the situation are causing misery to the population of the district supposed to be the launching pad of CPEC. It is high time that provincial and federal governments undertake a realistic and applicable approach by proceeding beyond traditional and existing methodologies for a way forward out of the chronic water dilemma of Gwadar.

The intervention of internationally recognized firms is critically needed. To secure much-needed resources, they can undertake the much acclaimed build-own-operate (BOO) model for water supply. The existing acceptable model of public-private partnership (PPP) can be adopted. In the present scenario, the government pays almost 4 rupees per gallon, while international firms are offering the same with less than 1 rupee per gallon.

What the firms need is an agreement on behalf of the government and a piece of state land to establish their structures. There is no harm in immediately making a proposal and agreeing to the terms and conditions best suitable to the government and the local populace.

(The writer is a civil servant served as the deputy commissioner in eight districts of Balochistan.)