KARACHI, Aug 11: Speakers at a meeting of Shura Hamdard, Karachi chapter urged the government to use coal to generate electricity and urged the masses to conserve energy by keeping extra bulbs, tube lights and air-conditioners off particularly during peak hours.
The meeting on “Country-wide electricity crisis-- our economy and effects on the society” presided over by Maj-General (retd) Ghulam Umar was held on Thursday evening here at a local hotel.
Ultimately we have to use coal for producing electricity, because we have tremendous reserves of coal estimating 180 thousand million tons. So we should set up power plants based on coal without further delay.
This was stated by Dr Mirza Arshad Ali Baig, former director-general, Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
He said electricity production of the KESC had reduced to 900MW and the electricity it received from other sources was 850MW so it had only 1,850MW electricity while Karachi needed 2,100MW. The deficit of 250MW electricity was met by power cuts by the KESC, which was unavoidable in this situation, he added.
Dr Baig said that disregarding of coal as a source of energy in such a country, which had tremendous reserves of coal, was really amazing while in the US, use of coal for obtaining energy was 40 per cent. He was of the opinion that if big dams were built in Pakistan, we would be selling extra electricity to others then. He stressed the need for switching to hydropower and coal in order to meet our energy needs.
Highlighting the difficulties of the masses, Mohammad Ahmed Sabzwari said that load shedding compelled students to study in candlelight and also put the lives of patients in danger in operation theatres.
Supply of electricity is less while its demand has increased, but it is surprising that during load shedding, big hotels, posh markets and marriage halls remain fully illuminated, he said.
Col Mukhtar Ahmed Butt said that the electricity crisis in Karachi was self-produced one. KESC's cables are being cut down and 11,000 kg cable stolen, he said adding that more than one million air conditioners are being run round-the-clock in Clifton and Defence areas and their electricity bills are surprisingly low.
“We can not blame the KESC as the government has failed to provide them protection”, he said. Col Butt called for measures to check power thefts and kunda system as according to him, these were the root causes of the ongoing power crises.
Haq Nawaz Akhtar, former chairman of the Pakistan Steel Mills suggested that villages should be electrified with solar energy.
He said that our electricity distribution system was old and the kunda system had made things even worse. Mr Akhtar said that our planning was defective and we had no concept of conservation of energy. Nobody bothers to put off extra bulbs, tube lights and air conditioners, he added saying that there is a great need to make people conscious about conservation of energy.
Engineer Anwarul Haq Siddiqui and others also spoke. In a resolution, the Shura strongly condemned the Israeli aggression against Lebanon.—PPI
