Shah said various researches by environment and climate change experts have indicated that power generation through coal will have negative impact on the human lives and it would destroy environment and ecology of the area.

This was stated by Muhammad Ali Shah, Chairman of Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) while addressing a press conference at Karachi Press on Friday along with Saeed Baloch, General Secretary of PFF and Shujauddin Qureshi from Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER).

The PFF Chairman demanded the federal government that under the Alternative Renewable Energy Policy 2019 the environment-friendly projects should be initiated. In the forthcoming budget 2020-21 the government should not allocate any funds for power general through fossil fuels. Instead, the government should allocate funds for renewable energy generation.

A large number of people have been displaced due to development of coal mines and power generation  units but they are not provided proper compensation of their lands and houses. The grazing points for animals have been destroyed. He demanded the government to pay proper compensation to the villagers and allocate Gaochar land for grazing of animals, he aaded

He pointed out that the government is currently installing coal-fired power plants in various parts of the country including in Tharparkar district and coast districts of Karachi, Hub and Gwadar, which pose a great danger to the ecology and health of human beings living in coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan. The experts have also indicated that these coal power plants would destroy the fishing sector, which is the livelihood source of millions of fishermen living along coastal areas.

The main affected people will be in Thar desert where the government has initiated a number of projects of coal mining and power generation. A total of 9 power plants with a total capacity of 3.7 gigawatts are proposed in Thar, which would constitute one of the largest air pollutant, mercury and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions hotspots in South Asia, Shah added.

According to researchers Mohammad Ali Shah said that the poisonous emissions from the plants and mines would pose a great danger to the health of hundreds of thousands people near these power plants in Thar. The coal power plants would emit an estimated 1400 kg of mercury per year, of which one-fifth would be deposited into land ecosystems in the region, Shah said adding that most of the deposition takes place onto cropland, increasing the mercury concentrations in crops. The levels of mercury deposition are potentially dangerous in an area with 100,000 inhabitants.

The other health impacts due to coal mining and power generation include 40,000 asthma emergency room visits, 19,906 new cases of asthma in children, 32,000 pre mature births, 20 million days of work absence (sick leave) and 57,000 years lived with disability related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and stroke, he shared the statistics by a research.

The coal mining and power plants would create water shortage as these activities would destroy underground aquifers. For the next years, the coal mining in Thar would require 4000 billion gallon of water and for generation of 10 Gegawatt power 8500 billion gallons of water would be consumed. This would create an acute shortage of water in Thar desert, which is already facing droughts.

Muhammad Ali Shah said that earlier a meagre quantity of power was being generated through coal, but now its share in the country’s power generation capacity is over 30 per cent.