"Fishers struggle as Gwadar port grows", Dialogue Earth, 27 Jul 2026

Local officials warned the 20 kilometre-long slick posed threats to the local fishing industry and marine life. The threats did not take long to manifest: a sea turtle was soon found dead, half-buried in oily sand.

Gwadar [...] is situated near the strait of Hormuz. Around a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil was shipped through this passage [...]. But it is not just this proximity to oil that makes waters around the port – and local fishers – extremely vulnerable to ecological emergencies.

[...] years of rapid development, designed to turn Gwadar into a major port, have brought displacement, flooding and environmental destruction. [...]

In 2015 China and Pakistan agreed to cooperate on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), an ambitious energy-import infrastructure project [...]

The first phase of the port was developed by the governments of Pakistan and China [...]. It was inaugurated in March 2007 [...]. But in 2013 [...]. The rights to the facility were transferred to the China Overseas Ports Holding Company Ltd, which has been operating it ever since.

Earlier this year the two governments announced a renewed push on the CPEC, with more development for Gwadar.

The city is susceptible to drought, climate change, groundwater depletion and rising sea levels, and has been experiencing unpredictable and extreme weather events.

In addition, development has reshaped the local marine environment. [...].

The key questions to [...] are how those environmental impacts are assessed, how they can be mitigated, and who will be a part of the conversations about developments. Today [...], local people have little role in these conversations.

After the 2000s, fishers were forced to leave the area they used as it fell within the port’s precincts [...] locals do not talk about the port publicly as they fear the ire of local authorities.

Now, fishers are not allowed near the port or where they used to fish.

Another concern relates to the [...] Eastbay expressway, which connects Gwadar port to the Makran coastal highway, and thus to on Karachi.

[...] The expressway cut off their routes to the Arabian Sea, [...].

During heavy rains, water used to flow from the land to the sea, [...]. This is no longer the case. The resulting floods have displaced multiple families.