I AGREE with the views of Dr Farid A. Malik (Jan 7). A news item, ‘Test burn at the Thar coal gasification project on 19th’ (Sept 7, 2011), seems to have missed the train, as no test burn took place.

Dr Samar Mubarakmand said he had a team of experts in relevant fields. Since this is the first project of its kind in Pakistan, how can his team have relevant experience?

Interestingly, Dr Samar is calling four experts from Uzbekistan. While this shows zero experience of his team in underground coal gasification (UCG), why experts are called from less-known Uzbekistan? Why not from Australia?

According to an Australian news item (Sept 1, 2011), the state Queensland government’s Department of Environment and Resource Management has confirmed its decision to shut down Cougar Energy’s Kingaroy underground coal gasification pilot plant due to serious threats to groundwater resources. This is in a country where regulatory standards are of the highest level. In Sindh, regulatory standards for water, air noise, hazardous wastes, health and safety are simply non-existent on the ground.

Coal gasification has two major disadvantages: it consumes large quantities of water, especially significant in arid areas like Thar, and it is less efficient than direct combustion. Reactors provide limited optimisation of either process efficiency or water consumption.

Environmental impacts of UCG process are significant: groundwater pollution, aesthetic effects, noise and air pollution. Like any geological extraction process, geological and hydro-geological risks of UCG have to be managed strictly, requiring stringent controls. In developed countries, a wide range of risk management techniques and management tools are available for regulatory purposes that control the process. In Thar’s case, these will be nowhere to be found.

In fact, literature review shows that frequent reference is made to ‘the vigorous health, safety and environmental standards in developed countries,’ implying that the UCG process may be appropriate for countries having stringent regulatory system.

Environmentalists have expressed serious concern over the possibility of uncontrolled fires taking place in the ground below.

These uncontrolled fires may combine with oxygen, hydrogen and methane to cause an unimaginable towering inferno, which will simply wipe out Thar from the map of Sindh.

According to media reports, Sindh Secretary for Coal Muhammad Younis Dagha, formerly DG, Sindh EPA, has expressed his reservations and has said that no technical study has been conducted to verify the claims of Dr Samar. Dr Samar’s expertise is in nuclear engineering. This has nothing to do with the mining engineering.

The Sindh chief minister should stop the proposed test burn, and form a technical committee of persons qualified in the fields of safety, risk assessment, emergency management, hazard identification, environmental pollution, water quality control, air pollution, toxic waste management and firefighting.

The technical committee should take decisions and manage the project. Thar is at stake and the Sindh chief minister should proceed cautiously to avoid any accident in the Thar area.

F. H. Mughal Karachi