GWADAR: THE NEARLY BLANK CANVAS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ISLAMABAD 016269

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PK ECON EAID
SUBJECT: GWADAR: THE NEARLY BLANK CANVAS


1. (U) Summary. During the Ambassador,s August 10-11 visit
to Gwadar, Balochistan, provincial and Gwadar Development
Authority (GDA) officials laid out their grand vision for the
port,s future--which they hope will someday rival Dubai,
providing a key transshipment point for trade with
Afghanistan and the Central Asian states. Local town
officials had simpler and more pressing needs: a reliable
drinking water supply, better schools so their children could
compete for jobs as the port and city grew, and improved
medical facilities. The first phase of the port construction
project has been completed, with signs of continuing
construction around the city--in particular a Pearl
Continental hotel perched on cliffs above the city--and a
three-fold increase in the city,s population, Gwadar remains
are remote, fishing town surrounded by desert. End summary.


2. (U) This cable on the port city of Gwadar is one of two
cables on the Ambassador,s visit to Balochistan. Septel will
address security matters, including counter-narcotics and
anti-Taliban, discussed in meetings in Quetta with provincial
and paramilitary officials, including the Balochistan
Frontier Corps Commander.

The Vision



3. (U) During his August 11 visit to Gwadar, the Ambassador
told provincial and local officials that the USG supports the
port project as a means to open trade to Central Asia. The
Ambassador also emphasized that the people of Gwadar should
be "in the forefront of those who benefit from the mega
project." Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani described Gwadar as "a
clean, flat canvas" for development in the region,
envisioning a future "ports and sports city," that would
include a dozen golf courses and which could be ready to bid
on the Olympics twenty years hence. The Director General of
the GDA said the work is underway on a sports complex that
would include a cricket oval, fields for soccer and field
hockey and an indoor sports facility.


4. (U) Both Governor Ghani and Provincial Chief Minister Jam
Mohammad Yousuf said that President Musharraf has approved a
50-year plan for further expansion of the port and city. By
2055, the port should include specialized terminals for
handling oil, LNG, LPG, oil refineries and storage, ship
repairing facilities, a ferry terminal, expanded capacity to
handle container ships, warehouses and storage yards.


5. (U) Even though the first phase of the port project is
almost complete, local political officials spoke in terms of
the port,s inauguration being "a few years away." Dredging
continues in the harbor to deepen the channel to 14.5 meters,
allowing large ships to dock at the port. The additional
dredging by a Chinese contractor should be completed by
December. Negotiations are underway for a port operator; six
major international corporations have expressed interest in
the project, according to GDA officials.

The Locals



6. (U) While Governor Ghani said that a small committee of
citizens from Gwadar has been formed to advise the
Development Authority in its planning, local officials denied
this, saying that they had not been included in planning.
The local leaders claimed that the people of Gwadar are
pleased that their city is being developed, but also fearful
that local jobs and businesses will be displaced by
development and that an influx of outsiders could make
natives a minority in their own city. District officials are
also dealing with a looming drinking water crisis; the lack
of quality education and inadequate local medical facilities.


7. (U) Some local officials also worried that insufficient

ISLAMABAD 00016269 002 OF 003


attention is being paid to the preservation of old Gwadar
City, which sits on a narrow peninsula extending
perpendicular from the coastline to a high headland, which
has cliffs 150 meters to 400 meters high. Provincial Chief
Minister Jam Mohammad Yousuf opposed efforts to move people
out of Gwadar,s Old Town, but was not averse to relocating
fishermen to a new jetty off the mainland. (Note: In the
end, it was not clear how port development project would
affect Old Gwadar: for example, the GDA Director General
showed the Ambassador plans to run a multi-lane road directly
over the Old City, saying that people would be given
incentives to move to new housing schemes to make way for the
roadway. In contrast, an engineer overseeing the project said
that a new road would be built along the East Bay shore, so
avoid the Old Town. End note.)

Water



8. (U) Local political officials cited a drinking water
shortage arising from the jump in district,s population from
40,000 to 130,000 residents in recent years as a serious
development problem. There is no underground water in Gwadar
and a nearby reservoir is running dry, now holding less than
two months supply after a year-long drought. Residents must
pay to receive water trucked in by tankers. Currently, there
is only one unreliable desalinization plant in the district;
plans for a large desalinization plant are still on the
drawing board.


9. (U) The GDA Director General told the Ambassador that it
will drill eleven new tube wells to ease the current
shortage, adding that a California-based company has applied
to build a 25-million gallon desalinization plant. The
district also plans to build a new dam to catch rainwater
northeast of the city on the mainland. In the long-run,
Gwadar will have to depend on desalinization for drinking
water.

Education



10. (U) All local interlocutors told the Ambassador that
Gwadar needs better educational facilities, so that local
children can qualify for jobs in the port and city
development project. Until new local high schools and
technical schools are built, local officials are looking to
federal and provincial authorities to subsidize Gwadar
students to be trained at Port Karachi and Port Qasim in port
operations.


11. (U) Coast Guard battalion commander LTC Mohammed Tariq
told the Ambassador that he also faces difficulties keeping
young captains and majors in the area because of the lack of
quality schools. He requested USG support for a school that
the Coast Guards would oversee. The battalion has acquired
the land for the school; the next step would be drawing and
retaining quality teachers from places like Karachi. Without
committing to the project, the Ambassador commended this
idea, noting that it parallels a schools program run by the
Army 11th Corps in the NWFP. The Ambasasdor also mentioned
USAID,s teacher-training projects in Gwadar, as well as its
support for school renovations. Approximately 600 local
teachers have graduated from the USAID training program,
while the USG has provided roughly 22 million rupees
(approximately USD 370,000) for local school facility
improvements.

Connecting Gwadar to the World



12. (U) The Governor and GDA officials previewed future
projects to tie Gwadar more closely to the rest of Pakistan
and connect the port to Afghanistan and Central Asia. The

ISLAMABAD 00016269 003 OF 003


recently-completed Karachi-Gwadar coastal highway has cut
travel time from a day to just eight hours. Now, coastal
fishing villages can quickly move get their catch to market,
creating a boat-building boom, but also leading to complaints
by local fishermen that competitors from Sindh are now
encroaching on their waters. According to the Governor, 400
kilometers of roads are now under construction or planned
within Gwadar. When told that road construction would be
delayed if the government had to pay for land, the Governor
said, some residents surrendered their properties gratis. The
government compensated those who lost a house, productive
agricultural lands, or who simply offered up their property
for roads. Roads running to the northeast will eventually
connect Gwadar to Quetta, the NWFP, and southern Punjab; a
new road to the north could linked into the Herat-Qandahar
highway in Afghanistan, facilitating trade with Central Asia.
A new, expanded airport is planned for Gwadar, which is only
a half-hour flight from the Persian Gulf states. Long-term
transportation plans include a ferry service connecting
Gwadar to Karachi, Oman and other Gulf states, as existed
until the 1970s.
BODDE