CNN has reported that coal pollution in South East Asia would triple by 20300 while it is reducing in China. The building of newcoal fired plants in South East Asia would result in diseases such as heart trouble, difficulty in breathing and loss of crops as a result. We in Pakistan are also building new coal fired plants while ignoring
clean hydel energy in our future plans. Govt. plans ought to generate more hydel energy that can produce 60 thousand MW of cheap power. We at present are using only 15% of our potential of hydel source. Main reason is delay in building KBD that would have given us 3600 MW of power and 6.1 Mil acres of storage of water in a year irrigating about 4 million acres of virgin land. We are digging 500 miles long Kachi canal in Balochistan but ignoring water storage at the same time. Current storage of water cannot meet our current needs. How would we supply water to 500 miles of Kachi canal? Balochistan should opt for KBD in its own interest if not in other province’s interest if it is to meet the escalating needs of water in new projects. Unfortunately Balochistan is sleeping in blind pursuit of Sindh & KPK’s anti KBD lobby to ignore its own vital interests.
Dr. Muhammad Yaqoob Bhatti
Lahore