HYDERABAD: The anti-coal plants’ caravan that started from Karachi under the aegis of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) reached Hyderabad here on Wednesday on its seventh and final day.

The protesters demanded an end to the plants produ­cing power on local and imported coal to save the environment.

The participants reached the local press club from Shahbaz Building to call for social and environmental justice.

PFF chairman Moham­mad Ali Shah said they had already raised voice against power generation on coal, but now they initiated a regu­lar campaign against such plants of Thar as well as those which were planned on imported coal.

He said Pakistan was moving towards the dangers of coal power plants while several countries in the world had given up producing coal-based energy.

He said Pakistan had a potential of over 300,000MW of wind energy, but present electri­city generation from wind resources did not exceed 500MW. Solar energy also had a lot of potential.

He said imported coal was offloaded at Karachi Port and Port Qasim and then dumped at 25 locations without environmental safe­gu­ards.

Data from environ­mental institutions, after checking air quality of Clif­ton Block I, II and Shireen Jinnah Colony, revealed pre­s­ence of dust particles in air which caused respiratory ill­ness, cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer, he added.

He said coal was then transported to various parts of the country in open trains and trucks. Around 10 per cent of coal was lost during the transportation, that too without any environmental and other safeguards.

He said Thar coal power project was directly impac­ting communities and caused migration, land speculation, water scarcity, degrading air quality, health issues and encroachment of grazing land.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2019