Residents of Gwadar have been facing an acute shortage of water for a very long time. The city has not received any water supply scheme for the last two decades as per reports, while the problem of short and irregular supply has intensified for the last couple of years. A drought-like situation has hit the Gwadar for the fourth time in the last six years. Residents of the city be it men, women or children are often forced to walk for kilometers in order to fetch some water for basic needs. It is important to point out that Gwadar’s water needs has not increased all of a sudden; the city still has a very meager population of around 285,000 people. If the government has failed to provide water to a small sized population it is a worry how the city’s need will be catered to once there is a population explosion, which is expected as the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and related projects reach completion. What is even more worrying is that the crisis is not new, Gwadar faced a serious water crisis back in 2012, if the government was serious about fixing the problem it would have taken some measures back then, but here we are in the year 2017 and the city is still without water but government Minister’s portray it as a hub of development and prosperity and dub it the new ‘Dubai’, a Dubai without water it seems.
It is pertinent to mention here that Editor in Chief Pakistan Group of Newspapers and Chairman Roze News, Sardar Khan News has taken it upon himself to highlight the severe water crisis that has become a menace for citizens of Balochistan in general and Gwadar in particular. Over the past few weeks Sardar Khan Niazi has highlighted the issue multiple times through his program Sachi Baat. During a recent interview of Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, SK Niazi had pointed out the issue to the Minister and asked him to look into it on urgent basis. During the recent interview of Former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, SK Niazi once again highlighted the issue and ensured the former Chief Justice of his media group’s full support to highlight the crisis and force the government into providing water to the people of Gwadar. It is hoped that this campaign taken up by Roze News and Pakistan Group of Newspapers under the leadership of Sardar Khan Niazi will wake up the leaders and they’ll take some urgent steps in this regard.
Gwadar has been portrayed as a future economic hub but its citizen’s remains without water.