Gas crisis

A way has to be found to keep gas pipelines safer given the losses incurred in economic terms.

Cities across Punjab continue to struggle with a gas shortage crisis that has been forcing people to cook on kerosene stoves, or acquire food however they can. Houses remain unheated, hot water unavailable. Rahim Yar Khan, Multan, Bahawalpur, Lahore and Faisalabad are among the worst-affected cities. And beyond homes, with gas to industries and CNG stations totally cut off, economic losses too, are mounting.



The crisis has followed the recent bombing of an 18-inch diameter gas pipeline in Rahim Yar Khan. The massive explosion also damaged two larger pipelines in the area and triggered a huge fire which destroyed mud homes and some 20 heads of cattle. SNGPL officials say a huge gas shortfall is being faced. Repair work is ongoing but significant change is needed to tackle this state of affairs. Media reports have said that the banned Balochistan Republican Army has claimed responsibility, but there has been no official confirmation of this. Before anything concrete could be done about this, there was another gas pipeline explosion in Ghotki on February 19 in the Qadirpur gas field, which resulted in the death of two people.

We have also seen past attacks on gas pipelines, though the one in Rahim Yar Khan has been the most serious one so far. There is a need to learn lessons from this. In the first place, it is of extreme importance that better security is provided for the pipelines, though this entails obvious difficulties given that the lines bringing in gas from Balochistan make their way across a vast territory. A way has to be found to keep them safer given the losses incurred in economic terms and the misery inflicted on ordinary people when they are damaged. Ways need to be found to protect them better. Right now, given the disasters that have occurred, the priority must be on repairing the lines and restoring the supply of gas. Its absence from so many homes is affecting life badly. People cannot be allowed to suffer in this manner. The SNGPL has a responsibility to its consumers and the government to its citizens. They must join forces to get the fuel essential to so many aspects of life flowing through the lines again as quickly as possible so that life in Punjab can return to something resembling normalcy.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2014.

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