GWADAR: The chairman of the Senate’s Standing Sub-Committee on Planning and Development, Shahzeb Durrani, has called for installation of desalination plants to solve the problem of drinking water shortage in Gwadar and its adjacent areas.

He said this during a meeting held in Gwadar on Monday. The meeting was also attended by Senator Muhammad Mohsin Laghari, Public Health Engineering (PHE) department’s Chief Engineer Nawaz Sheikh and other officials, Port Authority Director General Dr Sajjad Baloch and Gwadar’s Deputy Commissioner Naeem Bazai.

Mr Bazai informed the meeting about the water crisis and alternate measures to resolve the issue.

Mr Durrani along with some officials also visited the newly-constructed Swad dam, Ankra Kour dam and Karwat desalination plant.

Officials said that the PHE and the local administration were supplying drinking water to Gwadar from Mirani dam through tankers at a cost of Rs240 million per month.

They said construction of Swad dam had been completed and pipelines were being laid to connect it with the water distribution system in Gwadar.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2018