ISLAMABAD, Dec 26: The federal government is urgently providing special Rs700 million funding to Balochistan to help meet 15-year water demand of the Gwadar Industrial Estate (GIE) through the installation of a foreign assembled desalination plant.

According to official sources, several suppliers of bigger size desalination plants have been contacted to provide two million gallons per day (mgd) desalination plant for GIE.

There are several suppliers of desalination plant, each having their proprietary system with different price tag. The objective would be to get a fully foreign assembled plant with sufficient warrantee from a reliable and experienced supplier, who can also guarantee ready supply of spare parts and can promptly deal with emergencies.

The cost of two - train plant with accessories and allied civil, electrical and mechanical works, including departmental charges contingencies, and consultancy, is estimated as Rs700 million.

The future demand of water supply will be met partly by recycling of waste water (irrigation and industrial cooling) and partly by the desalination plant. At present there is no water resource available in the area.

The Balochistan government has provided 3,000 acres of land through two separate allotment letters, out of which 20 acres land will be made available free of cost through the Gwadar Industrial Estate to set up water desalination plant, intake work, storage tanks and other facilities.

The total cost of water supply from the plant (including depreciation) will be Rs0.25 per gallon against the cost of water supplied by tankers at Rs0.76 per gallon.

The total saving on full production of two million gallons will be Rs219 million per annum. However, the decision to install plant is the need based and not return based.

As the actual use of water in the industrial estate in the initial stages of development will be small, the water can be sold to their users on market rates, especially to the industrial and commercial development planned in the vicinity of the estate by the private sector.

There will be approximately 2,000 industrial units in the Gwadar Industrial Estate providing employment to 30,000 workers. Most of the production will be export-oriented and will bring foreign exchange to the country.

The project will be implemented by appointment of a consortium of consultants.

The development of infrastructure is the top priority of the government of Balochistan. The most basic requirements being roads, water supply, electrification and sewerage system.

The demand of water largely depends on the type of industries to be installed there. Whereas chemical and textile industries may have a large water demand, some value-added garments and electronics will require very little water.

On an average demand of 1,000 gallons per acre per day, the estimated water demand would be about 2.5 million gallons per day (mgd) during the year 2008, which will increase at 10 per cent per annum at an average. The requirements of irrigation of road-side plantation and green areas will be largely met from the recirculation of treated sewerage effluent.

The underground water in Gwadar is extremely deficient both in terms of quantity and quality. The only source of surface water that can be used for GIE is Saear Dam located some 24 km away. The cost of transmission of water over 24 km distance and filtration will be substantially high, roughly estimated at Rs250 - 300 million.

However, due to irregular and scanty rainfall in the area, surface water sources such as the dam, which wholly depend on the rainfall, cannot be relied upon as in times of draughts (which are not uncommon), the industrial production will greatly suffer. It has been decided that due to proximity with sea, the most reliable source of water supply for the GIE would be desalination of sea water.