Integrated Water Resources Management Practices in Tharparker,
Launching Ceremony of Tharparkar Area Water Partnership
and Dialogue on Journalistic Approaches to address Climate
Change and Environmental Issues of Tharparkar
(02 Mar- 09 Mar, 2015)
Team Members
Dr. Pervaiz Amir (Agrl. Economist/Agriculture & Livestock Expert)
Muhammad Awais (Logistic Services/Finance Officer)
Guests:
1. Shabina Faraz ( Journalist)
2. 2-Mehmood Alam Khalid (Journalist/Editor at Faroozan)
Field Assistance:
1. Lajpath Rai
(Local Community Activist)
2. Master Punnu
(Local Communicty Activist)
3. Narash
(Local Community Activist)
4. Muhammad Ashraf (Support)
5. Sibtain Malik
(Support)
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Global Water Partnership
GWP supports countries to realize the water vision by helping them to improve governance
and management of water resources for sustainable and equitable development.
Effective governance and a willingness to work together are widely accepted as the keys
to solving the problem of how to share limited water resources equitably among many
different and competing water users.
Across the world, at every stage of national development, GWP continues to build
understanding of the relationship between economic growth and increasing water
security. GWP demonstrates how water security can be achieved in practice based on a
firm foundation of knowledge and innovation.
GWP pursues this mission by promoting an integrated approach based on the principles and
practices established at the International Conference on Water and the Environment in
Dublin in 1991 and at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. The value of this approach was again
recognized at the Rio+20 Conference in 2012. It is now internationally accepted as being
crucial in effective and sustainable management of water resources and in stimulating
green growth.
Pakistan Water Partnership
To promote the concept and principles of Integrated Water Resources Management
(IWRM) in the country in order to meet the growing scarcity of water resources, increasing
deterioration in water quality and the looming threat to environmental sustainability and
also create awareness at the grassroots level about the need and potential of adopting
IWRM techniques and solutions to solve locally water and environment related problems
on a community basis.
Fig: 01 PWP team’s visit to Tharparkar with Journalists to highlight field problems.
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Table of contents
Purpose of visit --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4
Introduction & Background of Tharparkar ----------------------------------------------------------------4
History of Tharparkar with reference to droughts ------------------------------------------------------ 6
PWP: Internet Links for Tharparkar -------------------------------------------------------------------------7
Activities -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5
Target Areas-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6
A: Field Activities:
1. Demonstration of Bio Sand Water Filters -------------------------------------------------------9
2. Promoting Rain Water Harvesting techniques -------------------------------------------------12
3. Traditional Methods of Soap Making -------------------------------------------------------------14
4. Distribution of nutrition food -----------------------------------------------------------------------16
5. Distribution of Vegetables seeds and Mineral Mix for Livestock ---------------- ---------17
6. Donated “Village nurseries” in two village------------------------------------------------------19
B: Launching Ceremony of Tharparkar Area Partnership--------------------------------------------21
C: Dialogue on “Journalistic approaches to address climate change and environmental
issues of Tharparkar – “with collaboration of Monthly Faroozan, Green Media Initiatives
and Muslims Aid”-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------22
Future planning & Strategies --------------------------------------------------------------------------------24
Annexes
Annex I- Press Coverage --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------25
Annex II-Attendance Sheet ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------38
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Purpose
The purpose of this brief report is to document some efforts made by Pakistan Water
Partnership to focus on the lives of downtrodden communities dwelling in isolated areas of
District Tharparkar especially Tehsil Mithi in term of low cost filtration methods to improve
quality of delivery of water and conservation of water through promoting Rain Water
Harvesting Techniques livestock drenching, raising of small village level forest nurseries and
by promoting hygiene and sanitation awareness.
Two activities Launching Ceremony of Tharparkar Area Water Partnership and Dialogue
on “ Journalistic approaches to address climate change and environmental issues of
Tharparkar – “with collaboration of Monthly Froozan, Green Media Initiatives and
Muslims Aid were conducted during the visit . Lastly, fund mobilization for extension of
project area will be explored.
Introduction & background of Tharparker
Tharparkar desert in Sindh is the largest desert of Pakistan and the eighteenth
largest in the world with an area of 22,000 square kilometers. The population of
Tharparkar is 1.5 million. This is the only district in Pakistan where more than 50
percent of the population is Hindus. The government has not conducted a proper
census after 1998 although analysts say that the population of Hindus in this district
is near 0.8 million. Out of this population more than 0.68 million are Dalits, who are
more vulnerable than the Dalits of other districts. Tharparkar district is divided into
four talukas, Nangarparkar, Chhachhro, Diplo and Mithi, with its headquarters in
Mithi city. There are about 2,400 villages in district Tharparkar, which are highly
populated with Dalit communities.
Fig: 1 Tharparkar Map
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The percentage of upper caste Hindus in this district is only 15 percent like that of Sindh
overall. The land in Tharparkar is highly fertile but unfortunately most of it is desert, so
that production of crops depends on rains during summer. Rains fall from mid-June to
mid-August each year. For the last ten years there has been drought conditions in
Tharparkar due to which 50 percent of the overall population migrated to barrage areas
to find food, because during droughts it becomes hard for them to even find water to
drink, leave alone for growing crops. Before this drought there have been problems of
diseases in animals, first with peacocks and then with sheep — the majority of these
animals died. Sheep is standard livestock for the Thari people and many were highly
affected by disease in the district. As per reports in the media, more than 5,000 sheep
died due to diseases in several areas of Tharparkar, which resulted in increases in the
selling price of sheep. Most of the people of Tharparkar tried to escape to save their
livestock but a few did not because they did not want to leave their lands.
During drought-like situations in Tharparkar, the majority of people in the agricultural
workforce eat meals of red pepper or onion and sometimes rabri (a mixture of milk or
curd and boiled grains). Their life is very simple; they are kind-hearted people and
peace loving people. During elections they don’t know whom to vote for and usually
cast their votes on the direction of their Mukhya (village chief). The literacy rate is low
and most people move during droughts to barrage areas in search of jobs. In this way
the education of their children is neglected and because of a lack of money most
children are pulled out of school after a few years anyway. In its last survey, the
Pakistan Hindu Seva also found for some years now upper-caste Banyas and Pathans
have begun a business of looting the poor farmers by providing them with loans of
food against which they extract massive interest later when crops are harvested, in
this way keeping the poorer people without food security. As a result of this and other
poverty factors, many pregnant women do not get proper medical treatment and diet
so that their babies are born with abnormalities or susceptibility to diseases and early
deaths. Another fact that several people in Tharparkar told the Pakistan Hindu Seva
team was that in many villages people resorted to drinking saline water due to which
hundreds of children, men and women face abdominal problems, while the color of
their teeth also becomes yellow from long use of this water.
Even though the drought in Thar has been ongoing for ten years, the government has not
considered this issue serious and the problem has been growing each year. However, the
media has recently started highlighting these issues, with the result that both federal and
provincial governments now started focusing on these issues.
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History of the Area With Reference To Drought
A report published by the Sindh Relief Department in 2012 mentioned that the area of
Tharparkar had been continuously declared as drought calamity hit area in 1968, 1978,
1985,1986, 1987, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2012 & recent drought of 2014.
Activities:
A: Visit encompasses 9 major activities in two Sections.
Section A:
1. Promotion of low cost filtration methods by demonstration of 5 additional Bio Sand
Water Filters in target areas.
2. Promoting Rain Water Harvesting techniques by excavation of 9 ponds in target
areas with involvement of local community.
3. Training of local community on traditional methods of Soap Making technology.
4. Distribution of vegetable seeds to promote the concept of kitchen gardening by
using household waste water.
5. Distribution of nutrition food amongst women & children.
6. Donated “Village nurseries” in two village.
7. Distribution of Mineral Mix for Livestock improvement.
Section B:
1. Launching Ceremony of Tharparkar Area Partnership
2. Dialogue on “ Journalistic approaches to address climate change and environmental
issues of Tharparkar– “with collaboration of Monthly Froozan, Green Media
Initiatives and Muslims Aid” Exploration and fund identification to expend project
area to 100 Km radius.
Activities were carried out in 5 villages of District Headquarter Mithi whereas a Launching
Ceremony of Tharparkar Area Partnership and Dialogue on “ Journalistic approaches to
address climate change and environmental issues of Tharparkar “ were held at Karoonjhar
Hall- Mithi 06 March, 2015.
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PWP has accepted the challenges of droughts as a focal thrust area of its work and is
now focusing its efforts on "Desert Development” with enunciated objective of
livelihood creation, water security, hygiene and environment.
PWP: Internet links for Tharparkar
1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/122984095@N06/14164145723/
2. pwp.org.pk/.../Report-of-Fact-Finding-Drought-Master-Planning-Appraisal
3. pwp.org.pk/.../Integrated-Water-Resources-Management-Practices-in-T
4. www.gwp.org/.../GWP%20SAS%20Monthly%20Report%20April%2020.
5. www.nytimes.com/2015/.../pakistan-braces-for-major-water-shortages.html
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Target Areas
1) Kamro Thakur
Population: 650
Average household size: 09
Caste: Thakur
Religion: Hindu
Distance from District Head Quarter : 33 Km
2) Bheel Paro Kamro
Population: 460
Average household size:10
Caste: Bheel
Religion: Hindu
Distance from District Head Quarter : 32 Km
3)Loondhar Bharoo Bheel
Population: 440
Average household size:10
Caste: Bheel
Religion: Hindu
Distance from District Head Quarter : 39 Km
4) Mithrau Dal Sameja
Population: 4000
Average household size:11
Caste: Sameja
Religion: Muslims
Distance from District Head Quarter: 47 Km
5) Meenghwarparo
Population: 400
Average household size:09
Caste: Bheel
Religion: Hindu
Distance from District Head Quarter: 49 Km
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A: Field Activities
1) Demonstration of Bio Sand Water Filter
Bio sand water filter removes up to 97 % of bacteria, 100 % parasites removes turbidity,
iron, manganese bad odour & taste by growing good microbes after contaminated water
is left in the pitcher for 2-3 weeks.
Bio Sand Water Filter is Low cost, simple, easy to make & no running cost is required
for maintenance and it costs not more than 500-600 rupees (US $ 5-6).
Bio sand filter can be made from local material available in the market and largely
consist of pitchers, PVC pipe, tape & graded filter. Bio sand filters are not sophisticated
high tech filters but simple technology to provide improved water to isolated
communities where public water supply is not available.
Pakistan Water Partnership has demonstrated Bio Sand Water Filter in isolated & rigid
areas of District Tharparker where there is no provision of safe & reliable source of water.
Community dwelling isolated areas of Tharparkar are compelled to drink the deteriorated
quality of water from old wells, PWP felt that there is need to introduce Bio Sand Water
Filter among community so that they have safe drinking water.
Fig: 1 Demonstration of Bio Sand Water Filter by community activities (Lajpath) at Kamro Thakur
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Fig: 2 Demonstration of Bio Sand Water Filter at Meenghwarparo- Proud village owner.
Fig:3 Water testing with TDS meter at Barach Goth. Much improved results noted
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Fig:4 Demonstration of Bio Sand Water Filter at Bheel Paro Kamro.
Fig:5 Demonstration of Bio Sand Water Filter at Mithrau Dal Sameja.
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2) Promoting Rain Water Harvesting Techniques:
Rainwater harvesting is the accumulation and deposition of rainwater for reuse on-site, rather
than allowing it to runoff. Uses include water for garden, water for livestock, water for irrigation,
and water for domestic use with proper treatment. In many places the water collected is just
redirected to a deep pit with percolation. The harvested water can be used as drinking water as
well as for storage and other purpose like irrigation and to some extent recharging the ground
water.
PWP has initiated concept of rain water harvesting among local community by excavating ponds
on already depressed land & on way of run-off to collect rain water for drinking, livestock & for
agriculture purpose. All projects are livelihood focused and are based on social mobilization.
Fig: 01 Excavation of pond at Meenghwarparo with the help local community (No Gender discrimination).
Five ponds have been excavated on five following locations:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Kamro Thakur
Bheel Paro Kamro
Loondhar Bharoo Bheel
Mithrau Dal Sameja
Meenghwarparo
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600
460
440
4000
400
33 km
32 km
39 km
47 km
49 km
Fig: 01 Excavation of pond at Kamro Thakur with the help local community.
Fig: 03 Excavation of pond at Basti Sahu Para with the help local community
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3) Traditional soap making techniques
Keeping in view the circumstances of Tharparkar and surroundings, the hygienic
conditions of community dwelling in Tharparkar is critical regarding personal hygiene,
down trodden community cannot afford to buy soap for personal cleaning and community
from far flung areas do not have access to local markets.
To promote the concept of hygiene awareness, PWP initiated the concept of soap
making by demonstration of soap making technologies amongst community & training
of focal persons to make soap at home for further replication of this technology in target
areas of District Tharparkar. PWP plans to expand this activity to 100 villages.
Fig 01 Demonstration of simple soap making techniques by Community Activist (Lajpath) at village Bheel
Paro.
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Fig 02 Demonstration of soap making techniques by Community Activist (Lajpath) at village Kamro Thakur.
Fig 03: Traditional method of Soap making.
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4) Distribution of Nutrition foods
Prolong periods of droughts badly affected the health of community dwelling especially
women & children in District Tharparker; PWP has distributed essential nutrition foods
among pregnant women’s to provide relief to the community.
Fig: 01 Distribution of nutrition food by Muhammad Awais at Basti Kamro Thakur
Fig: 02 :Distribution of nutrition food by Muhammad Awais and Guest Shabina Faraz at Bheel Paro Kamro.
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5) Distribution of vegetable seeds and Mineral Mix for Livestock:
Communities dwelling in District Tharparker mostly are underfed due to food shortage
which becomes very rare during droughts, PWP has distributed 600 seeds packets
among more than 1200 families to promote kitchen gardening techniques by utilizing
kitchen residue water.
Fig: 1 :Distribution of Mineral Mix for Livestock by Muhammad Awais at Basti Mithrau Dal Sameja
Fig: 2 :Distribution of Mineral Mix for Livestock by Muhammad Awais at village Loondhar Bharoo Bheel.
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Fig 03:: Distribution of seeds by Dr. Pervaiz Amir at Basti Kamro Thakur.
Fig 04: Dr. Pervaiz Amir is showing the proper procedure to plant the seeds to Local Community.
Fig 05: : Mr.Muhammad Awais is planting the seeds.
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6) Donated “Village nurseries” in two villages.
Village nurseries donated in two villages of Tharparkar.
1. Barach Ghot
2. Loondhar Bharoo Bheel
Fig 01: : Village nursery donated in Loondhar Bharoo Bheel.
Fig 02: Village nursery donated in Barach Ghot.
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Fig 03: : Work with local community for plantation at Barach Ghot.
Fig 04: : Dr. Pervaiz Amir and Muhammad Awais in front of nursery.
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B: Launching Ceremony of Tharparkar Area Water Partnership:
A Launching Ceremony of Tharparkar Area Water Partnership was arranged on 06 March, 2015
with all non-political stakeholders, NGOs, Civil societies, Lawyers & Media persons to discuss
potential formation of Tharparkar Area Water Partnership.
Fig: 01 Dr. Pervaiz Amir briefing about concept of Area Water Partnership.
Fig: 02 Group photos of participants in Launching Cermony of Tharparkar AWP
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C: Dialogue on “Journalistic approaches to address climate change and
environmental issues of Tharparkar– “with collaboration of Monthly Frozan,
Green Media Initiatives and Muslims Aid” Exploration and fund identification
to expend project area to 100 Km radius.
A Dialogue on “ Journalistic approaches to address climate change and environmental issues
of Tharparkar– “with collaboration of Monthly Froozan, Green Media Initiatives and Muslims
Aid” Exploration and fund identification to expand project area to 100 Km radius was
Arranged on 06 March, 2015 in Karoonjhar Hall-Mithi Tharparkar with all non-political
Stakeholders, NGOs, Civil societies, Lawyers & Media persons came from Karachi.
Fig: 01. Dialogue on “Journalistic approaches to address climate change and environmental issues of Tharparkar–
Fig: 02. Dr Pervaiz Amir Participating in Dialogue on “Journalistic approaches to address climate change
and environmental issues of Tharparkar”
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Initiatives taken by PWP were well appreciated by stakeholders, and all stakeholders’ especially
Muslim Aid, a Journalists, had shown tremendous interest to work in Tharparker Area & willingness
to carry out the mission of PWP.
Fig: 03 Shabina Faraz addressing to Participants.
Fig: 04 Group photo with Journalists.
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Future Planning & Strategies
PWP introduced Integrated Water Resources Management concept in District Tharparker, and
is hopeful that within short period of time, PWP with the collaboration of existing stakeholders
of District Tharparkar will be able to mobilize the community to adopt IWRM. PWP is planned to
enlarge the circle of community mobilization each year.
PWP will conduct following activities with collaboration of Stakeholders at District
Tharparkar.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
Rain Water Harvesting
Bio Sand Water Filters
Hygiene Awareness
Health Awareness
Bio Gas Plants
Kitchen Gardening
Livestock Awareness
Appraisal on new areas in Nagarparkar and diplo
9) Advocacy & lobbying on Government level
10) Explore financial partners
11) Initiate dialogue with government to establish Tharparkar uplift fund
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Annexes:
Annex I
Press Coverage:
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ASIA PACIFIC
Starved for Energy, Pakistan Braces for a Water Crisis
By SALMAN MASOODFEB. 12, 2015
Afghan refugees pumped water by hand in a slum of Islamabad, Pakistan. An official
warned that Pakistan could become “a water-starved country.”
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Energy-starved Pakistanis, their economy battered by chronic
fuel and electricity shortages, may soon have to contend with a new resource crisis:
major water shortages, the Pakistani government warned this week.
A combination of global climate change and local waste and mismanagement have led to
an alarmingly rapid depletion of Pakistan’s water supply, said the minister for water and
energy, Khawaja Muhammad Asif.
“Under the present situation, in the next six to seven years, Pakistan can be a waterstarved country,” Mr. Asif said in an interview, echoing a warning that he first issued at a
news conference in Lahore this week.
The prospect of a major water crisis in Pakistan, even if several years distant, offers a
stark reminder of a growing challenge in other poor and densely populated countries
that are vulnerable to global climate change.
In Pakistan, it poses a further challenge to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose
government has come under sharp criticism for failing to end the country’s electricity
crisis. In some rural areas, heavy rationing has meant that as little as four hours of
electricity a day is available.
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Arshad Massi, a 34-year-old laborer, showered under an outdoor pipe in
Islamabad.CreditMuhammed Muheisen/Associated Press
In the interview, Mr. Asif said the government had started to bring the electricity crisis
under control, and predicted a return to a normal supply by 2017. But energy experts are
less confident that such a turnaround is possible, given how long and complex the
problem has proved to be.
Now the country’s water supply looms as a resource challenge, intensified by Pakistan’s
enduring infrastructure and management problems.
Agriculture is a cornerstone of the Pakistani economy. The 2,000-mile-long Indus River,
which rises in the Himalayas and spans the country, feeds a vast network of irrigation
canals that line fields producing wheat, vegetables and cotton, all major sources of
foreign currency. In the north,hydroelectric power stations are a cornerstone of the
creaking power system.
A combination of melting glaciers, decreasing rainfall and chronic mismanagement by
successive governments has put that water supply in danger, experts say.
In a report published in 2013, the Asian Development Bank described Pakistan as one of
the most “water-stressed” countries in the world, with a water availability of 1,000 cubic
meters per person per year — a fivefold drop since independence in 1947, and about the
same level as drought-stricken Ethiopia.
“It is a very serious situation,” said Pervaiz Amir, country director for thePakistan Water
Partnership. “I feel it is going to be more serious than the recent oil shortages.”
Shortages of resources have climbed to the top of the political agenda in recent years.
Fuel shortages last month, for which government officials blamed mismanagement by
the national oil company, caused lengthy lines outside fuel stations that embarrassed the
government at a time of low global oil prices.
Mr. Sharif’s government was already grappling with the seemingly intractable electricity
crisis, which regularly causes blackouts of 10 hours a day even in major cities. And Mr.
Sharif has been visibly distracted by grueling political duels, with the opposition
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politician Imran Khan, who accuses him of stealing the 2013 election, and with powerful
military leaders who have undermined his authority in key areas.
Mr. Asif, the water and energy minister, said the government had started to turn the
corner. But he acknowledged that the country’s resource problems were, to a large
degree, endemic. “There is a national habit of extravagance,” he said, noting that it
extended across resource areas, whether gas, electricity or water.
A girl collecting water for her family at a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad.
“I will be very careful not to use the word ‘drought,’ but we are water stressed right now,
and slowly, we are moving to be a water-starved country,” he said.
Evidence of chronic water shortages have been painfully evident in some parts of
Pakistan in recent years. A drought caused by erratic rainfall in Tharparkar, a desert area
in southern Sindh Province, caused a humanitarian emergency in the region last year.
“The frequency of monsoon rains has decreased but their intensity has increased,” said
Mr. Amir of the Pakistan Water Partnership. “That means more water stress, particularly
in winters.”
Water is also tied to nationalist, even jihadist, politics in Pakistan. For years, religious
conservatives and Islamist militants have accused rival India, where the Indus River
system rises, of constricting Pakistan’s water supply.
Hafiz Saeed, the leader of the militant group that carried out the 2008 attacks in
Mumbai, India, Lashkar-e-Taiba, regularly rails against Indian “water terrorism” during
public rallies.
Mr. Asif said that contrary to such claims, India was not building reservoirs on rivers
that flow into Pakistan. “We will never let it happen,” he said, citing the Indus Water
Treaty, an agreement between the two countries that was brokered by the World Bank
and signed in the 1960s.
One major culprit in Pakistan’s looming water crisis, experts say, is the country’s
inadequate water storage facilities. In India, about one-third of the water supply is
stored in reservoirs, compared with just 9 percent in Pakistan, Mr. Amir said.
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“We built our last dam 46 years ago,” he said. “India has built 4,000 dams, with another
150 in the pipeline.”
Experts say the country’s chaotic policies are hurting its image in the eyes of Western
donors who could help alleviate the mounting resource crises.
“The biggest looming crisis is of governance, not water — which could make this country
unlivable in the next few years,” said Arshad H. Abbasi, a water and energy expert with
the Sustainable Development and Policy Institute, a research group based in Islamabad.
Declan Walsh contributed reporting from London.
A version of this article appears in print on February 13, 2015, on page A12 of the New York
edition with the headline: Starved for Energy, and Bracing for a Water Crisis.
Ref Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/world/asia/pakistan-braces-for-major-water-shortages
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Pakistan shelves six coal-fired power projects
Last updated on 27 March 2015, 5:41 pm
Environmental concerns, lack of infrastructure and foreign investment hold up 14,000 MW of planned power
plants
A Beijing power plant. Expected Chinese investment in coal plants for Pakistan has not come through (Pic: Flickr/Bret
Arnett)
By Aamir Saeed in Islamabad
Pakistan has halted work on six coal-fired power projects of some 14,000 megawatts due to environmental
concerns, lack of needed infrastructure and foreign investment.
Prime minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Asif Ali Zardari broke ground of the first mega coal power project in
January 2014 to help the country overcome its energy crisis.
The cost of the entire project was estimated at US$6-8 billion and it was scheduled to be completed in 2017. The
government was expecting to generate 6,600 MW of electricity from the project.
Separately, Pakistan’s Punjab provincial government announced five coal-based power projects of 7,400 megawatts
to be installed in different cities, but they have also been stalled.
Report: Climate change blamed as erratic downpours hit Pakistan’s harvests
Omar Rasool, a top official in the water and power ministry, confirmed the projects have been put on the back burner
and the government was now planning to use liquefied natural gas (LNG) to generate electricity.
“The government is well aware of the environmental hazards of the coal-fired power projects; therefore it is planning
to use alternative sources like the natural gas to produce electricity,” he said.
However, Rasool said the government was still negotiating with the Chinese government to secure investment for at
least two coal-based power projects.
“A viable energy mix solution may help Pakistan overcome its energy crisis but we need foreign investment to execute
these projects,” he said.
First shipment of 60,000 tonnes of the LNG arrived in Pakistan on March 26 from Qatar and the government would
supply this to four independent power producers, he said.
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“The LNG would help generate around 1,000 megawatts additional electricity and the government would further boost
supply of the gas to increase the generation in summer,” he said.
Report: Coal mining banned in India’s Mahan forest
According to government data, Pakistan has coal resources of more than 185.5 billion tonnes. If half of these
resources were exploited, it would be enough to generate 100,000 megawatts of electricity for 30 years.
Syed Jamshed Rizvi, president of The Institution of Engineers Pakistan, said the government’s tall claims about the
coal-fired power projects stand completely exposed as it is now accepting the disadvantages of its overambitious
schemes.
“We have numerous coal reserves available but they are useless for us unless extracted and used for generation of
electricity,” he said.
He suggested the government start only viable projects to address the energy crisis and avoid overblown rhetoric,
which only erodes its credibility with the public.
“The government was planning to import coal from China for the initial three years but now it realised that it has
neither the funds to import the coal nor the needed infrastructure to transport it to plants in different cities,” he said.
Pakistan faces a year-round electricity crisis which rises to around 7,000 megawatts in summer. The government was
planning to bridge the shortfall by building coal-fired power plants with help of foreign investment, especially from
China, but failed to do so.
Report: Global coal growth slows, but impact on climate set to rise
Arshad Abbasi, an energy expert at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, said the government should have
conducted basic environmental studies before launching the projects.
In South Asia, the total coal consumption in 2012 remained around 685 million tonnes, of which 98% was used in
India, with the highest share consumed in the power sector, he said.
“The share of electricity generated by coal in India is 71%, the highest in the region, but at the same time the coalbased thermal power plants are the single biggest source of air pollutants, causing trans-boundary fog in winter,
change of weather patterns, including monsoon rainfall,” he said.
Being a signatory to the Minimata Convention on Mercury, Pakistan is required to control and reduce emissions of
mercury and mercury compounds from point sources including coal-fired power plants, he said.
“The coal-fired power plants are the largest contributors to mercury emissions worldwide, so the government should
think twice before initiating such projects,” he said.
Report: Green Climate Fund urged to ban coal funding
Pervaiz Amir, an environmental expert and former member of the prime minister’s Task Force on Climate Change,
wants the government invest the coal funds in hydro power sector to reap multiple benefits.
“If the government uses the coal funds to make a canal from its Chenab river, this would help irrigate the country’s two
biggest deserts, Cholistan and Thar, besides overcoming energy crisis and food-insecurity,” he said.
He accused China of offering obsolete technology to Pakistan for its coal-fired projects, which would only add to the
country’s environmental woes.
“The coal-based power projects will spread different diseases like tuberculosis in the respective areas besides
polluting our water resources,” he said, suggesting the government to turn to clean energy sources like wind, sun and
hydro-power.
Ref Link: http://www.rtcc.org/2015/03/26/pakistan-shelves-six-coal-fired-power-projects/#sthash.2iOsyV72.dpuf
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: Annex II
Attendance Sheet
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