In August 2018, The Express Tribune reported that Balochistan's caretaker government had begun supplying water to Quetta and Gwadar after more than a decade of crisis. Public Health Engineering Minister Naveed Ahmed Kalmati said desalination plants brought into service were delivering 300,000 gallons, about 1,360 m³/d, to Gwadar each day, rather than paying Rs1 billion for tanker water. The province had also agreed an MoU with China's government covering 1.5 million gallons a day, about 6,820 m³/d. Gwadar also received water from Mirani Dam.
The report showed that in 2018 desalination served as a short-term answer to a long supply crisis in Gwadar, with Chinese partners already involved in the city's water planning.