In Gwadar, Pakistan’s multimillion-dollar port city, hundreds of women and children have been protesting water shortages since early June. They bring empty buckets and containers to their protest site at the Fish Harbor Road to block one of the routes to Gwadar Port.
Temperatures in Gwadar can go as high as 45 degrees Celsius. That doesn’t deter them; they keep returning to the streets, protesting, blocking roads and burning tires — all in the hope that someone in power might address the ongoing water crisis.
With drought taking over and water levels in dams dropping to historic lows, questions are being raised not just about the current water crisis, but about decades of neglect that have pushed Gwadar to this situation. How will Gwadar’s 260,000 people survive without a sustainable and long-term strategy in place?
One of Pakistan’s most important cities, Gwadar is the gateway to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Already, China has spent around $28 billion on CPEC and some $230 million on Gwadar city, including its water infrastructure. Yet, something as basic as access to water remains an unresolved issue for the people of Gwadar.
What Is Behind the Crisis?
Gwadar’s main source of water is rainfall. But weather patterns have been changing, and like the rest of Pakistan, Balochistan’s southern coast, where Gwadar is located, is beginning to suffer the impacts of climate change. Winter downpours that were once common in the region have become a rarity, and when they do arrive, they bring destructive flooding, as was seen in 2005, 2007, 2010, 2022, and 2024.
Despite these episodes of heavy rainfall, droughts have also become more frequent and of longer duration. Since 2012, Gwadar has faced acute water shortages not only due to dry spells, but also because authorities have failed to plan and prepare for changing weather patterns.
“This crisis is not merely a result of absolute water scarcity, but a consequence of ineffective water governance, lack of climate change adaptation, and the absence of policies that reflect the realities on the ground,” Pazeer Ahmad, a Gwadar-based researcher and hydrologist, told The Diplomat. “Solutions such as water conservation, storage, and groundwater recharge are underutilized,” he said.
For over two decades, the Ankara Kaur dam was Gwadar’s only source of water. As the population grew, so did the number of infrastructure projects like the Gwadar Port and several other projects under CPEC, including roads in and around the city, the East Express Way, a new international airport, and a number of educational institutions. Hence, the Ankara Kaur dam was no longer sufficient to meet Gwadar’s needs. Low rainfall and a massive build-up of silt in the 17,000-acre Ankara Kaur reservoir worsened the problem.
In 2016, two new dams — Sawad and Shaadi Kaur dams — were completed. Construction of the Sheizank and Shanzani dams followed. Yet all these dams failed to end the water crisis.
“Ankara Kaur dam is completely dry,” Bahram Baloch, a local journalist, told The Diplomat. “Currently, the Sawad dam is the only one providing water. But its water will last for the next three to four months, before it also completely dries,” he said.
There are severe water shortages in Gwadar. “People receive water once every ten to fifteen days,” said Nabi Buksh Baloch, a resident of Gwadar Old City. He told The Diplomat that households store water in underground tanks. “Wealthy families have larger or more than one underground tank and use pumps that pull more water. This makes it harder for others to access water,” he said.
“Pipelines linking the Shaadi Kaur dam with Gwadar city have been installed. But these are not supplying water as funds are needed for electricity, pumping, and maintenance of infrastructure. So, a potentially valuable water source remains unused,” Bahram Baloch pointed out.
Complicating the issue, water supply is overseen by two departments — the Gwadar Development Authority (GDA) and Public Health and Engineering (PHE). “Although water supply has been the PHE’s responsibility, of late, the GDA has also gotten involved. They were the ones to install pipeline connections from Sawad to Gwadar City. Both want to control water projects and this could be causing delays,” Nasir Rahim Sohrabi, an activist and president of a local development organization, said.
Why Have Desalination Plants Failed?
There is the water of the Arabian Sea that Gwadar can draw on. To this end, 11 desalination plants have been set up in Gwadar district, but none currently provides water to the city. “Although desalination is a viable solution, it is a costly process and needs constant power supply, which the region lacks, Sohrabi told the Diplomat.
Many of these plants were set up with Chinese funding. For example, a 1.2 million-gallon-per-day (MGD) desalination plant was installed through CPEC funding at an estimated cost of $12.7 million. Another 5 MGD plant costing $5 billion is under construction. In 2023, China also donated a desalination plant, which it says provides 5,000 tons of potable water per day.
New plants are being set up when existing ones are not functional. “Although such plants may create the impression that the crisis is being taken seriously, each new plant is only a new photo session opportunity for the successive governments,” Nabi Buksh Baloch said. “Each desalination plant,” he said, “brings in more funding. That also means more opportunities for those in power to misuse the funds.”
The Quick Fix of Trucking in Water
Authorities have also tried trucking in water. During droughts in 2012 and 2017, for example, when Gwadar only had pipeline connections with the Ankara Kaur dam, the government paid tanker companies to truck in water from the Meerani dam, located in the neighboring district of Kech, around 150 kilometers from Gwadar city. This was a burden on the government. According to Nabi Buksh Baloch, “many officials from the PHE and the local administration allegedly pocketed funds meant for water supply. Consequently, many tanker owners went unpaid and they often cut off water supply to residents.”
These days, the government is no longer hiring tanker companies for water supply to Gwadar. “So now when supply is short, those who can afford it buy water from tankers, which costs around $70-$90 per tank, that too for contaminated water, as the trucks source it from nearby ponds,” Nabi Buksh Baloch said.
Is Corruption Fueling the Crisis?
Corruption is yet another issue. Earlier this month, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Balochistan Assembly pointed out financial irregularities in the functioning of the PHE. This isn’t the first time that such corruption has been laid bare. In 2021, the National Accountability Bureau’s Balochistan chapter detected corruption to the tune of $4.46 million in one of Gwadar’s water desalination projects.
In addition to these massive corruption cases, “residents are often forced to pay a bribe to the ‘valve-man’ if they want to fill their home tanks. While officers at higher levels benefit from massive funds, the lower staff exploit residents by demanding petty bribes,” said Nabi Buksh Baloch.
Can the Crisis be Resolved?
Despite several dams being constructed, desalination plants being installed, and billions of rupees being spent on water infrastructure, Gwadar’s water woes persist. The water crisis is not the result of water scarcity alone. Failure of effective planning, lack of transparency and accountability, misuse of funds, and lack of climate adaptation measures are also to blame.
Larger dams can store more water during rainy seasons. These could help deal with water shortage during droughts. These dams need to be well-connected with the city through pipeline systems. There is also no need for more desalination plants, but it’s crucial to make operational the ones already set up.
“Gwadar is not without water resources. It has the Arabian Sea, groundwater reserves in Dasht and Jiwani, and surface water of Sawad and Shadi Kaur dams,” Ahmad said, adding that “what’s lacking is the political will and capacity to manage these resources and climate-resilient planning.”