Coal, power and Thar

Pakistan is a country that is rich in many valuable natural resources which are often to be found beneath the lands lived on by the poorest and least developed communities. This is true of Sindh and specifically the coal deposits in the Thar region. Like Balochistan, much has been promised in the near and far past to the people of Thar but little actually delivered. The coal mining project is one of the largest of its type in the country and there are fears that it is going to have an impact on the life of local people — inevitably so given that Thari women are to be found driving vast dumper trucks — their livelihoods and culture as well as the ecology of the region to say nothing of the vast flocks that are the primary source of income for many if not most.

All these concerns got an airing at a programme organised by the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), and some were immediate and serious. The mining is going to displace people from 52 villages and people of the area have long campaigned against the building of the Gorano reservoir — an essential infrastructure adjunct to the mine. Questions were asked as to what would happen and who might be responsible if populations and livestock were poisoned by polluted water — a real possibility — or herds were depleted by loss of grazing and habitat. Is compensation fair and timely and what is going to happen to displaced communities which cannot simply be relocated elsewhere without the provision of services and infrastructure?

These are complex issues with no single answer or plug-and-play solution. Complex but not impossible to effectively address, and it is now for all the players at every level to do what has so often not been done in the past — create a holistic picture of needs and solutions and then implement an action plan that gets the best out of Thar’s coal for everybody, not just a powerful few. Realistically this is unlikely to happen and the people of Thar are likely to be as poor tomorrow as they are today.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2017.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.