‘Sindh can meet entire country’s energy needs’

Energy minister dubs coal-based power projects ‘cheapest source of energy’

Sindh has the capacity to meet the energy demand of the entire country, claimed Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh in a statement issued on Friday.

He said the Sindh government, under the leadership of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Pakistan Peoples Party chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, had launched coal-fired power projects in Thar, dubbing coal the “cheapest source of energy.”

On the other hand, experts and activists have lately been demanding the closure of coal-based power projects in Thar, highlighting its environmental, health and socioeconomic hazards.

A study titled ‘Thar Coalfield Water Impacts: Financial and Social Risks’, conducted by Paul Winn, an international energy campaigner working with Hydrocology Consulting - a global strategic engineering and environmental consultancy enterprise - and released last month, warned that coal-fired power plants in Thar presented a “substantial risk of significant water conflicts” in Sindh and would create a severe water shortage in the region.

Moreover, experts and activists highlighted during a conference in July this year that water schemes initiated for mining coal in Thar were meant to displace local people, would affect their drinking water resources and have a negative impact on the environment.

Wind projects

In the statement issued on Friday, the provincial energy minister also elaborated on ongoing wind energy projects in Sindh, terming them a means of producing energy that didn’t cause any environmental pollution and was cheap.

He said 12 such projects were underway in Jamshoro, with each of them possessing the capacity to produce 50 megawatts of energy

Criticising the federal government, he said the Sindh government was delivering on the energy front instead of “making hollow promises.” He assured that the provincial government was utilising of the province’s resources for people’s welfare.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2020.