The province of Balochistan is the most water-strained in Pakistan. The socioeconomic situation of the country is defined by its deserts, the low density of population, and an economy that is still based mostly on livestock, small-scale agriculture, and opportunities of mineral extraction and a port in the depths of the sea. However, more and more the provincial discourse is being framed in terms of two competing realities, namely scarcity and opportunity. Scarcity is also a result of the destruction of ancient water-management systems like karezes, excessive use of groundwater, as well as the growing uncertainty of rainfall caused by climate change. Opportunity is, however, the result of a modern generation of projects, such as small micro-dams, desalination facilities, and local pipeline projects, which, eventually, can deliver dependable water supplies to the population, to agricultural firms, and to new urban centers, like Gwadar. The key question is, will the governments of Islamabad and Quetta pursue a long-term approach to cohesion, or will they continue to maintain short-term measures to solve the problem by creating more inequality and environmental degradation?
Mirani Dam and its Infrastructure
A preliminary solution needs to rely on the available infrastructure and data on the quantitative level. A conspicuous symbol of the state’s investment in the water sector in Balochistan of the past is the Mirani Dam, which was built in the middle of the 2000s on the Dasht River to provide water to the cities of Kech and Gwadar. Although it does a very important job for the coastal strip, as well as for the city of Gwadar, its storage capacity, as well as distribution systems, cannot meet the ever-growing requirements of urban and industrial centers alone. According to recent official reports, the live storage of the dam is estimated at some 0.152 million acre feet, and there are ongoing efforts to align outflows of the dam with the water supply system of Gwadar.
Traditional Water System in Decline
In addition to grand dams, rural water supply networks in Balochistan have long been karezes, underground water channels, fed by gravity, which draw on aquifers and deliver water at the community level. There are centuries of hometown engineering and hometown management. Studies have, however, revealed that karezes are being depleted very fast as tube wells multiply and aquifers have decreased; the very things that should support irrigation, pumps, and boreholes are jeopardizing the sustainability of these common systems. Renovation and conservation of karezes should not be just a legacy exercise, therefore, and must be part and parcel of any water strategy: they are more cost-effective and fairer than pump-based extraction, and they assist in preserving groundwater levels when managed effectively.
Local Water Restoration Under PSDP
What is evolving now is the variety of interventions in question and funding. The provincial Public Sector Development Programme of Balochistan has budgeted to finance micro-dams, sail Saba bunds, and earth ponds – small-scale interventions with the capacity to replenish groundwater, capture flash floods, and rangelands locally. The 2023-2024 PSDP has major line items on such distributed infrastructure and the provision of rural communities with heavy-equipment hours to build micro-dams, thus indicating the change towards decentralized water storage. These measures are economical compared to big dams and have a faster local effect in case they are appropriately directed.
Desalination and CPEC Urban Water Solutions
Meanwhile, technological solutions have been facilitated at the national level and in relation to CPEC. An example of how seawater treatment is now being positioned as a key urban solution in coastal Balochistan, at least in the context of municipal supply, is the Gwadar desalination program, including a desalination plant of 1.2 million gallons per day planned in the Gwadar Free Zone as part of the CPEC. Desalination can help cities like Gwadar to alleviate pressure on inland aquifers as well as on tanker-based emergency supplies, but it is both energy-demanding and expensive unless it is coupled with renewable energy sources and well-designed pricing policies.
Core Policy Problems
This combination of big dams, small reservoirs, desalination, and rehabilitation of karez makes up the correct menu, but bad kitchen work will ruin the meal. The main policy issues that should be considered are the following:
Fragmented planning: Water projects in Balochistan tend to be developed in isolated units: a dam here, a desalination plant there, PSDP micro-dams elsewhere, with no basin-level strategy to coordinate storage, groundwater recharge, urban demand management, and environmental flows. The outcome is the squandered capacity and local bitterness in case of unequal distribution of benefits (evidence: several simultaneous programs in provincial PSDP and national/CPEC lists without obvious integration of basins).
Disregarding governance of groundwater: The karezes are crumbling due to uncontrolled borehole drilling and subsidized electricity, which makes pumping a free-for-all spree that drains the aquifers. In the absence of binding groundwater regulations, the rehabilitation investments will be short-lived. Research indicates that karezes are very effective and fair-minded- but only in case groundwater is managed as a common property that has common entitlements and recharge incentives.
Equity and affordability: The effect of long-term scarcity can be concealed by the process of desalination and tanker supply, which, at the same time, places urban and geopolitical interests (ports, strategic infrastructure) above the interests of rural farmers and pastoralists. The policies should incorporate tariff design and subsidies to the poorest users and revenue sharing to ensure that the local districts will enjoy major projects.
Weathering and information voids: The hydrology of Balochistan is evolving; flash floods, prolonged droughts, and the variability of rivers based on glaciers need improved monitoring networks. It is guesswork to plan without credible hydro-meteorological information. The projects are frequently financed by international partners (ADB, World Bank, CPEC lines) – their programmers are to focus on long-term monitoring and open data.
The pragmatic policy priorities that follow are short-term, tangible, and cost-effective:
Embrace basin-level integrated planning: All mega projects (Mirani pipelines, desalination plants, micro-dams) should be considered as a part of a Dasht-Mekran or coastal basin plan balancing urban water use, agriculture, and ecosystem needs. The mapping of provincial planning documents (PSDP) should be superimposed onto basin hydrology.
Commercialize and regulate groundwater rights: Require boreholes to be registered, license pumps based on the health of the aquifer, and create incentives to be able to recharge the aquifer by using managed aquifer recharge (MAR). Award communities that rehabilitate karezes with both technical and financial assistance – modernizing the social institutions that formerly regulated such systems.
Scale distributed storage: Flood-storage bunds, micro-dams, and check dams are cheap and create local resilience. Entry measures at the provincial PSDP should be increased in size, community co-financing, and open procurement.
Desalination should be strategic and not ad-hoc: Combine new capacity of desalination with renewable energy (solar or wind) and a tariff system that keeps off free-riders and saves the vulnerable households. Install desalting facilities as an element in a diversified supply network – not the only solution.
Water Governance Politics
The water future of Balochistan is not merely a technical issue but a political one as well. Real stability and development of the province will rely on the open benefit-sharing, believable compensation in case of any effects on the land or resources, and the local long-term involvement. When Islamabad treats the province as a place where the project is going to be implemented rather than a partner, every pipeline and dam will result in new complaints.
Conclusion
Lastly, there is the ethical and realist aspect; water is local. Settlements that have had karezes since before the beginning of time think of scarcity and conservation in a better way than formal engineers do. Policy ought to combine that local knowledge with contemporary engineering, funding, and monitoring – a combined strategy that restructures both infrastructure and confidence.
Balochistan is at the crossroads. Mirani and other storage assets are already in place, an agenda of desalination is emerging, and provincial investment is being made in micro-dams; all the building blocks are there. The outstanding issue is governance: coherent basin planning, groundwater regulations, equal sharing, and climate-wise finance. Get that right, and the province will no longer be facing a water crisis, but a crisis of response, a crisis of transition, rather than a crisis of scarcity, and will be turned into a narrative of conservative, collective flourishing.
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The views and opinions expressed in this article/paper are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Paradigm Shift.
Imran Sattar is a journalist with his Master's in Journalism from IBA Karachi.