Precious commodity: Instances of water heists surface in Gwadar

Shortfall causing crisis as locals queue for hours to receive a single bottle

QUETTA: Despite massive Chinese investment for the future development of Gwadar Port City residents of the city find themselves running short of potable water to such an acute extent that instances of robbery, not of gold, cash or silver, but clean drinking water have been reported.

“Last week, unknown persons stole drinking water from a house, breaking in at midnight in the captain Murad Baksh area of Gwadar. Following the unique incident, people have locked-up their water tanks with steel locks,” Sadaqat Hussein, a local resident of Gwadar said.

The people of this city are facing an acute scarcity of water and have voiced deep grievances over the shortage after not getting water for their daily use. The issue has been aggravated by the high cost of water tankers ranging from Rs10,000-15,000. Furthermore the provision of water to the city has been suspended due to no water in dams and no rain and more than 150,000 people of Gwadar and its adjacent areas are being deprived of the basic necessity.

The only provision of water to the city was Akra Kaur Dam – a medium sized water conservation dam which due to lack of rain in recent months, has dried up. People are compelled to buy water at high rates from far flung areas.

The residents of Gwadar have demanded the establishment of water filter plants to sort out the shortage of water issue permanently.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2015.