Media watch: Lacking the basics
Media sheds light on some of the basic problems facing Pakistan including water, fuel and education.
Media watch is a daily round-up of key articles featured on news websites, hand-picked by The Express Tribune web staff.
Nothing to drink
While all this bureaucratic wrangling is going on, the ones who are suffering are the millions of Pakistanis denied access to safe drinking water and thereby health. Indeed, clean drinking water is not just a right but a basic necessity of life. Currently, 65 per cent of the population has sustainable access to clean drinking water. Under the Millennium Development Goals, Pakistan had pledged to raise this to 93 per cent by 2015. It is incumbent on the federal and provincial governments to sort matters out and make the full implementation of the CDWA project a priority. (dawn.com)
Education with a purpose
There is a need to go back to the drawing board to rethink what we want from our education system. The fragmentation that we are seeing is not good for us. Granted there is a minority of elite schools that are giving decent training providing some advantages to these children in securing places in good colleges and universities and then in places of work but the majority of schools are not being able to do that. And more importantly, the public good element of education is being completely ignored. (pakistantoday.com.pk)
Vanishing gas
The moves to limit consumption are necessary because of the gap between the gas we burn and the gas we produce. Our production is about four million cubic feet of gas per day, and the shortfall on projected consumption is between 568 and 917 million cubic feet a day. As recently as July 6 this year, the general manager of Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited said that SNGPL was taking “many measures” to overcome problems of gas supply and that in the coming days there would be an improvement in supply. (thenews.com.pk)
The worsening gas crisis
Pakistan was once a major gas producer, but it has underinvested in exploration for natural resources and now has been forced to look overseas for supplies. The US has been urging Pakistan to import LNG from Qatar, a major producer located in the nearby Persian Gulf, to stop looking at Iran for gas supplies. It is hoped that at least in the short-term the government takes the appropriate measures to begin import of gas from Qatar in a move to resolve our short-term supply shortages. (brecorder.com)
Nothing to drink
While all this bureaucratic wrangling is going on, the ones who are suffering are the millions of Pakistanis denied access to safe drinking water and thereby health. Indeed, clean drinking water is not just a right but a basic necessity of life. Currently, 65 per cent of the population has sustainable access to clean drinking water. Under the Millennium Development Goals, Pakistan had pledged to raise this to 93 per cent by 2015. It is incumbent on the federal and provincial governments to sort matters out and make the full implementation of the CDWA project a priority. (dawn.com)
Education with a purpose
There is a need to go back to the drawing board to rethink what we want from our education system. The fragmentation that we are seeing is not good for us. Granted there is a minority of elite schools that are giving decent training providing some advantages to these children in securing places in good colleges and universities and then in places of work but the majority of schools are not being able to do that. And more importantly, the public good element of education is being completely ignored. (pakistantoday.com.pk)
Vanishing gas
The moves to limit consumption are necessary because of the gap between the gas we burn and the gas we produce. Our production is about four million cubic feet of gas per day, and the shortfall on projected consumption is between 568 and 917 million cubic feet a day. As recently as July 6 this year, the general manager of Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited said that SNGPL was taking “many measures” to overcome problems of gas supply and that in the coming days there would be an improvement in supply. (thenews.com.pk)
The worsening gas crisis
Pakistan was once a major gas producer, but it has underinvested in exploration for natural resources and now has been forced to look overseas for supplies. The US has been urging Pakistan to import LNG from Qatar, a major producer located in the nearby Persian Gulf, to stop looking at Iran for gas supplies. It is hoped that at least in the short-term the government takes the appropriate measures to begin import of gas from Qatar in a move to resolve our short-term supply shortages. (brecorder.com)