WHILE travelling for some personal work, I got a chance to see the flood-affected areas. It was so depressing to see that most of the cities of Punjab are badly affected. Fields and crops are submerged in water. Houses have washed away.

On main Chiniot road, I saw flood-affected people sitting on the road with nothing. A pick-up van distributing cooked rice in small plastic bags was throwing the food bags on the road as if feeding it to animals. The authorities had not reached the scene even after four days.

I urge all Pakistanis to help these poor people for whom it may take decades to rebuild what is destroyed.

Ayesha Moqarrab
Jhang

Coal for energy

Pakistan is an unfortunate country that, despite possessing one of the largest coal reserves in the world, it is not producing electricity through coal.

The gap between energy demand and supply is growing bigger by the day which is creating great chaos for the economy.

The ‘Thar Coal Project’ is one good option to be adopted for overcoming this crucial energy shortfall.

Thar coal reserves have the capability to produce 50,000 MW which can easily meet the nation’s requirements.

Initiating coal-based power will require a one-time initial expense and as a result the country could become self-sufficient in power production besides the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs throughout the country, particularly Sindh.

I fail to understand the reluctance to start this project when our close friend China and most of Eastern Europe rely on coal to meet their energy needs.

The Thar coal project must be given serious consideration, as it has the capacity to meet most of our power requirements for almost the next 50 years. This will obviously strengthen our economy and energy security as well.

Hadiqa Amin
Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2014