Gwadar, 24 January 2022 (TDI): President of Islamic Republic of Pakistan Dr. Arif Alvi presided a meeting in Gwadar and reviewed the trade management of the border areas of Balochistan.
Said meeting was attended by the Advisor to Pakistan’s Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood, Governer Balochistan Syed Zahoor Ahmed Agha, Chief Minister Balochistan Abdul Quddoos Bazenjo, Commander 12 Corps Lieutenant General, Sarfaraz Ali, and Commander Coast of Pakistan Navy Rear Admiral, Jawad Ahmed.
Moreover, Chairman of Federal Board of Revenue, Dr. Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed, Chairman CPEC Authority, Khalid Mansoor, Chairman Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) Mansoor Khan, MNA Muhammad Aslam Bhootani, Chief Secretary Balochistan Mathar Niaz Rana, and other senior officials also attended the meeting.
Perpetual progress on the different course of the development of the Gawadar was briefed to Dr. Arif Alvi. In order to facilitate the foreign investors, frugality for the NOC issuance was streamlined during the discourse. Further, it was opined that the Pakistani government would start to issue the NOCs in four weeks.
The Meeting Committee discussed the prospective project of desalination 1.2 MGD water plant in Gwadar with the help of China. In this regard, the Reverse Osmosis Desalination (ROD) project having the capacity of 1.2 million gallon per day will be installed at Gawadar with the Chinese grant of approximately Rs. 2 billion.
Federal Cabinet has approved the said project for the provision of fresh portable water for the people of Gwadar city. Basically, the Federal Government had given the approval for the mutual water desalination by devising the scheme of co-sharing (50 – 50% cost-sharing formula) between the Federal and Balochistan government respectively.
The Federal Government of Pakistan also released the funds of Rs. 138 million in the fiscal year of 2006–2007 but said the project couldn’t be installed. Later the cost of the project was revised up to Rs. 978 million for the commencement and the accomplishment of the said plan.
The residents of the Gawadar city have been facing scarcity of drinking water for a long a time. Ankara Kaur Dam is the only main source for the provision of freshwater to Gwadar. But the said dam is unable to meet the utilization demand of the Gwadar city because of frequent droughts.
The current supply of water to Gwadar city is 2.0 MGD while Gwadar requires 4.2 MGD per day. Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Information, Fawad Chaudhary assured the ROD project that this would eliminate the said shortage of water and the people of the Gwadar would have excessive and satiable availability of the water soon.
