News Desk
DERA BUGTI, Pakistan — For more than seven decades, the gas fields of Dera Bugti have fuelled Pakistan’s cities, industries, and households. The discovery in Sui in 1952 was hailed as a national triumph, a resource that would light stoves in Karachi and power factories in Lahore. But in the villages closest to the wells, taps remain dry.
Families here rely on brackish water drawn from shallow wells or tanker deliveries that arrive sporadically and at exorbitant prices. Children carry plastic jugs across dusty paths, waiting in line for hours to fill them. Mothers boil water to ward off disease, though the effort rarely succeeds. “We gave Pakistan its gas,” said a farmer in Pir Koh, “but we cannot drink clean water in our own homes.”
The paradox is stark. Billions of cubic feet of gas have been extracted from beneath Dera Bugti’s soil, enriching the state and fueling national growth. Yet the district itself remains starved of the most basic necessity. The absence of clean water has fueled disease, poverty, and despair, leaving residents to wonder how a place that enriched the nation could remain so impoverished in its most fundamental need.
Economists call it the “resource curse” — when wealth extracted from the ground enriches outsiders but impoverishes locals. In Dera Bugti, the curse is written in thirst.
The lack of clean water has devastating health consequences. Diarrheal disease is rampant among children. Skin infections spread easily. Maternal health suffers as women drink contaminated water during pregnancy. Doctors in the district report that waterborne illnesses account for the majority of cases they see.
“We treat the same sickness every day,” said a physician in Sui. “It is not complicated medicine. It is simply the absence of clean water.”
Successive governments have promised water schemes, pipelines, and treatment plants. Most remain unfinished or abandoned. Development funds vanish into contracts and kickbacks, while villagers continue to rely on tanker trucks. “Every election brings new promises,” said a tribal elder. “But the only water we see is bought at high prices from private suppliers.”
The irony is bitter. Gas pipelines crisscross the district, carrying energy to distant cities. But water pipelines, promised for decades, never materialized.
For families, the absence of water defines daily life. Women spend hours fetching water, a task that consumes time and energy that could be spent on education or work. Children miss school to help carry jugs. Farmers struggle to irrigate fields, limiting agricultural output and deepening poverty.
The struggle is not just physical but psychological. “We live above wealth,” said a mother of five, “but we drink from dirty wells. It makes us feel invisible.”
In national debates, Dera Bugti’s plight is rarely discussed. The district is seen as a resource hub, not a community. Its gas fields are symbols of national pride, but its water crisis is treated as a local inconvenience.
Yet the crisis is emblematic of a larger challenge: how to balance national development with local justice. Without addressing the inequities of resource distribution, Pakistan risks deepening the very divisions that have long haunted its federation.
As gas reserves decline, companies scale back operations, and workers leave. But the water crisis remains. The district’s economy never diversified, tethered entirely to gas. With wells running dry, residents face a future of unemployment and thirst.
For many, the decline of the gas fields is not just an economic blow but a moral one. “We gave Pakistan its energy,” said a farmer in Loti. “Now the wells are empty, and we are left without water.”
The absence of clean water has become a symbol of neglect. It is a reminder that resource wealth without reinvestment is a curse rather than a blessing. For families who still carry jugs across dusty paths, the irony is bitter. They live atop one of the country’s richest energy deposits, yet remain trapped in thirst.
The pipelines carry gas to distant cities, but the taps in Dera Bugti remain dry.
Seventy Years Later
Seventy years after the discovery of gas in Sui, the district remains a paradox: a place that enriched the nation but impoverished itself. The flame that lit Pakistan’s homes never reached the wells of Dera Bugti.
For its people, the story is not one of triumph but of betrayal. They gave Pakistan its energy, but they cannot drink clean water in their own homes.
