Getting water to Gwadar

There are a host of reasons why Gwadar is not the ideal location for very large-scale development of anything. Geographically isolated with a negligible population in the hinterland that could provide an expanding workforce, appalling lines of communication across in large part unstable territory and above all else — a chronic water shortage. It was something of a white elephant until the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor hove into view and suddenly it was no longer a character in search of an author. Today it is being integrated as a buckle along the CPEC belt that China is crafting to run from the states of sub-Saharan Africa up into Central Asia. But a lack of water is now a serious impediment and the Chinese, frustrated by the comparatively slow advancement on the Pakistan side is non-committal about the funding to bring water to the thirsty projects.

It is now decided that Pakistan is to self-finance a Rs5 billion water treatment plant in Gwadar, with the federal and provincial governments of Balochistan sharing construction costs of a 5-million-gallons-a-day osmosis sea water plant. This is the minimum needed to support the city’s emerging water needs, but the government did not allocate money for this budget line in the current fiscal.

Once again muddled thinking is to the fore as the complexity of CPEC begins to overwhelm the capacity to deliver by Pakistan, a pressure that can only increase over time. Originally China was to contribute 90 per cent of the costs, but has now said that may take two years to get clearance and Pakistan says it cannot wait that long hence the decision to self-finance — a decision unsupported by an existing budget. Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has now directed that the private sector be approached for funding. The Balochistan government has its own views, mainly that the Build-Operate-Transfer model is unsustainable because there is no major industry in Gwadar or its hinterland. There is no escape from the water trap. If the project is to proceed, then Gwadar has to have water and whoever is to provide it is a question hanging in the air. Answer it. Fast.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2018.

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