QUETTA: Coordination Committee on Water blamed the Quetta Electric Supply Company (QESCO) for the water shortage in Gwadar city of Balochistan.
According to reports, a review meeting was held at the Gwadar Development Authority (GDA) office to follow up on directives issued by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif regarding Gwadar’s ongoing water and electricity crises.
Noor-ul-Haq Baloch, Chairman of the Coordination Committee on Water and Chairman of the Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) chaired by review meeting. Director General GDA Moeen-ur-Rehman Khan, Deputy Commissioner Gwadar Hamood-ur-Rehman, GDA Chief Engineer Haji Syed Muhammad, Public Health XEN Momin Ali, QESCO XEN Hussain Bakhsh, Deputy Director Water Project Muhammad Akbar Baloch, GDA Water Project Engineer Qambar Baloch, and SDO Public Health Dad Kareem attended the meeting and Waqas Anwar, Senior Chief from the Ministry of Planning and Special Initiatives joined the meeting via video link from Islamabad.
During the meeting, the officials were briefed that the core reason for the water shortage in Gwadar is the inadequate power supply. As per the PM’s orders, the Ministry of Energy has been instructed to take urgent action, and QESCO has been directed to ensure uninterrupted supply of approximately 6 megawatts of electricity to key installations including the Sod Dam feeder, GPA desalination plant, and the airport pumping station to resolve the water crisis in the port city.
To address the issue at a local level, it was decided that water supply would begin via a newly laid GDA pipeline starting from the Mullaband area. New household connections are currently being installed, and water will be sourced from the GPA desalination plant. Additionally, meters will be installed on the main transmission line from Sod Dam to the airport water station to accurately monitor water distribution and demand.
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The meeting was also informed that a voltage fluctuation on Sunday night had disrupted the main water supply pipeline. Repair work is underway and is expected to be completed by this evening, after which water supply will resume.
Later, members of the Coordination Committee met with local councilors from Mullaband and adjacent areas to discuss household connection installations and ensure greater community involvement to accelerate implementation of the project.
