China gifts 1.2 MGD capacity desalination plant costing $ 12.7 million to Gwadar

Gwadar: Chinese government has gifted a desalination plant of 1.2 Million Gallons Per Day (MGD) capacity costing US $ 12.7 million for the port city of Gwadar to provide clean drinking water to its residents.

The project costs $12.7 million which would be financed by the Chinese government and contracting company on the basis of Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) from the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) would be hired for the project execution, the Pakistani government confirmed on Tuesday evening.

Gwadar lacks clean drinking water facility whereas this desalination plant of 1.2 MGD capacity would help purify sea water and make it safe for human consumption.

The desalination plant would be installed in Gwadar Free Zone to supply potable water to Old city area along with Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) requirement.

Almost 70 percent of the population of Gwadar was facing acute water shortage and required some 7.5 million liters of water to feed its existing population whereas the desalination plant would provide clean drinking water for the water parched masses, according to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, which would be the supervising agency of the project. The project implementation agreement was signed on July 5, 2021 whereas the civil work would being kicked start this year and would be completed in 12 months.

Pakistani federal government has also allocated Pakistani Rs 600 million under its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2022-23 for establishing a desalination plant in Gwadar to fulfill the fresh water requirements of the port city.

The desalination plant in Gwadar would desalinate 5 million gallons of sea water daily to cater the needs of the port city residents for clean drinking water.

The federal government would be fund 67 shares of the total cost while Balochistan government would bear the remaining cost for the development of desalination plant in Gwadar.

With the desalination plant, the water supply to Gwadar would be resolved in the short period as the work on the establishment of desalination plant is in progress.