Groundbreaking ceremony was held for the 5,000-ton per day Seawater Desalination Plant in Gwadar Free Zone.
The project is expected to be completed within a year and will provide 5,000 tons of fresh water per day to Gwadar residents and enterprises, greatly mitigating water shortages.
This project is also a part of CPEC, aimed at improving the lives of locals.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Pang Chunxue, Charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, CM Balochistan Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, Minister of Defense Khawaja Muhammad Asif, and Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Planning and Planning, Development and Reform, Pakistan were present.
In his speech, PM thanked China for its assistance and the hard work of Chinese builders. He said that China had donated solar power equipment to thousands of families in Gwadar, built hospitals and other infrastructure that improves people’s livelihood, and will also help build a desalination plant. He highly appreciated China’s great contribution in helping solve people's livelihood problems in Gwadar.
Pang Chunxue, Charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, stressed that China attaches great importance to people’s livelihood in Gwadar and is ready to continue to promote the development of medical care, and education and training of vocational and technical personnel in Gwadar. Efforts are being made to address the shortage of electricity and fresh water for a smart, green, and modern Gwadar Port.
“China is ready to further synergize development strategies, implement the Framework Agreement on Industrial Cooperation, strengthen cooperation in industries, people’s livelihood and agriculture, and jointly implement high-quality development of CPEC with new Pakistan speed”, she said.
The Seawater Desalination Plant is one of the eight projects that was inaugurated or performed groundbreaking during PM’s visit to Gwadar. The others include the Eastbay Expressway, the Installation of 3,000 Household Solar Power Generation System, Huafa commodity display center, Agvon fertilizer plant, Jintai meat processing plant, Hang Geng industrial park, and Hengmei lubricating oil plant.
China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) will undertake the construction of the seawater desalination plant and the procurement and installation of seawater desalination equipment.
