GWADAR: The port city of Gwadar remained shut against long and unannounced power outages amid extremely hot weather and shortage of drinking water on Tuesday.

The shutterdown strike call was given by the leaders of all political parties and traders of Gwadar as a result of which the city came to a grinding halt.

All bazaars, shops, business centres, markets and shopping plazas remained closed against unannounced outages and water crisis in Gwadar and other adjoining areas.

Gwadar has been facing a severe water crisis for over a month and the only dam called Akara, which supplies water to Gwadar’s burgeoning population, has dried up due to absence of rains. During 2012 to 2016, Gwadar faced a similar crisis thrice. The residents of Gwadar, who pay their electricity bills regularly, are faced with numerous problems, said the protesters.

According to a leader of the All Parties Alliance, Uzair Baloch: “An amount of over Rs100 billion has been spent on different projects in Gwadar, yet its residents are made to take to the streets and shut down the city just to seek water and power.”

A local political leader, Saeed Ahmad Baloch, said: “We have been told that Gwadar is going to become next Dubai, Singapore or Hong Kong but we are at a loss not to find water or electricity at our homes.”

He also pointed out the issue of displacement of a number of people from their hamlets.

A case in point, he added, was local fishermen.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2017