As people fear epidemic, administration still sluggish in draining away the water.
“As per expectation, we did not face any difficulty in emptying out the first aquifer as there was not much water in it,” SECMC CEO Shamsuddin Ahmed Sheikh said while talking to APP on Thursday.
He said besides the mining operation, water extraction from the 120-foot deep second aquifer was also under way. However, he said personnel on the site would have a tough time in draining water from the third aquifer, since it was getting refilled continuously from an underground lake.
“Dewatering will be a continuous process even after mining operation and during extraction of coal from the reserves,” he said, adding it would be possible only when more water was pumped out than the amount of water seeping in from the underground lake.
Responding to a question, Sheikh explained that the underground water was highly saline and would be stored in a water reservoir about 26 kilometres away from the mining site. SECMC Chief Operating Officer Syed Abul Fazal Rizvi said the drained water would be utilised at a later stage when the two Thar coal power projects of 660 megawatts being constructed at the mine’s mouth became operational.
“After recycling, this water will be supplied to the power plants for cooling purposes, which will be a continuous process,” he added.
Thar is home to 175 billion tons of coal reserves, considered the seventh largest in the world. Mining has started in the region recently through combined efforts of SECMC, the Sindh government and China Power International. The project is part of the mega China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“CPEC is crucial to the development of Thar coal as it facilitates financing requirements of projects and streamlines their execution,” Sheikh said while highlighting CPEC’s importance.
“As soon as coal supply to the power plants starts, commercial operations by the plants will begin and it is expected that by the end of next year or early 2019, first unit of the four power plants will become operational.”
He added that work on 1,320MW power plants comprising four units of 330MW each was also under way with expected outlay of $2.1 billion.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2017.
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