In a world of higher electricity demand growth, clean electricity is stepping up to the challenge. Spearheaded by exponential solar expansion, clean power is set to grow faster than demand, marking the start of a permanent decline in fossil generation. 2024 both clarified and consolidated the shape of the global …
THE PAKISTAN government continues to ignore the plight of the boat-dwellers of Manchhar lake. When the waters of Larkana, Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Baluchistan were drained into the lake to reduce waterlogging in these areas, the resultant overflow submerged thousands of acres of agricultural land around it, reports Panos. For the …
THOUGH Moeen Qureshi is only interim prime minister of Pakistan, he has dared to challenge the wealthy and influential landowners of the country by imposing a wealth tax on agricultural income. This is something that former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto did not dare to do, fearing a …
LIGHTING offers much scope for improving energy efficiency in Pakistan, according to the country's National Energy Conservation Centre (ENERCON), which says the energy savings potential in lighting exceeds 50 per cent nationwide. Using a World Bank-format for planning, ENERCON is seeking funding to implement a five-year energy efficiency improvement programme …
A PAKISTANI student has single-handedly started a plantation drive in Karachi. Imran Sultan has planted nearly 70 neem saplings in the past five months in the Karachi Administration Employees' Housing Society complex, and spending PRs 15,000 (Give Indian equivalent) on pits, earth, fertiliser and the wages of a part-time gardener, …
PAKISTAN plans to expand the controversial uranium enrichment plant at Kahuta near Islamabad to provide fuel for a nuclear power reactor being bought from China, according to senior government officials. Abdul Qader Khan, director of the research laboratories at Kahuta, said, "We believe that by the time we have the …
WHILE Washington continues to maintain there is no proof that China is exporting nuclear missile technology to Pakistan, US intelligence says it has proof China shipped components to Pakistan that made it possible for the Pakistanis to assemble their own version of the Chinese M-11 surface-to-surface missile. In addition, an …
FISHERFOLK and environmental scientists are blaming industries set up along the Sindh coast for causing serious health problems by emitting increasing amounts of carbon monoxide and lead into the environment, says a Panos report by Najma Sadeque. Of late, many people in Karachi, including children, have suffered brain haemorrhage and …
THE RIO summit in June 1992 has turned out to be a midsummer night's dream. Only five countries -Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Finland - have fulfilled in the past the promised inter- national goal that a country's overseas aid should be equal to 0.7 per cent of its …
A STUDY of meteorological records indicates drought has been a recurring problem in Pakistan"s Thar region. When it occurs now, it creates severe shortages of food, fodder and water, but such shortages never occurred during more serious droughts in the past. That"s because these shortages are the result of major …
Katchi abadis (illegal squatter colonies) are a common feature in Pakistan's rapidly expanding cities. Karachi alone has 362 such colonies, housing more than 3 million people -- about 40 per cent of the city's population. These settlements have sprung up since the 1970s as a result of immigration from rural …
THE WATERS may be calm, but the bridge has been certainly troubled. After 18 months and much controversy the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), approved the 17-km long, 50-feet high skyway, proposed by the Karachi Development Authority (KDA). The Sindh government also has passed the project following the Canadian report. …
THE GRANT of fishing rights on Haleji Lake, Pakistan, to a contractor has stirred up a hornet's nest and a group of environmentalists gone to court wanting the award to be invalidated. The group says organised, large-scale fishing in the lake will disturb the large number of migratory water fowl …
A NOTED cetacean expert, Randall R Reeves, has pleaded for another dolphin sanctuary in Pakistan's Punjab province to protect the endangered blind river dolphin on the basis of a study on the likely impact of a hydroelectric station at the Tunsa barrage conducted in 1990. The power station, according to …
DESPITE resistance from his country's religious leaders, Pakistan's Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, is going ahead with plans to implement a comprehensive family planning strategy. And this is being done through Pasbaan, the social development wing of the Family Planning Association of Pakistan (FPAP). Pakistan, with a projected population growth of …
THE SUB-CONTINENT, judging by these three reports, went prepared to Rio. In fact, the first report, prepared by a Sri Lankan NGO, chides UNCED for trying to save the earth without even consulting its people. The three reports focus on the major environmental problems of these countries. They draw attention …
A concerted international effort is underway to protect the remains of the ancient city of Moenjodaro from the double menace of a rising water table that is turning the city to dust and the unpredictable ways of the Indus which threatens to flood the site. But the plan may be …
IN Pakistan, environmentalists have gone to court to save the houbara bustard from being hunted by wealthy Arabs. The bustard case has not only angered the Gulf states, it has also provoked a surge of interest in the largely untapped potential of public interest litigation. When the government of Sind …
AKHTAR Hameed Khan, 78, started his career in 1936 with the Indian Civil Service in erstwhile Bengal where he rose to become director of the Academy for Rural Development in Comilla. Returning to Pakistan after the creation of Bangladesh, he took up a research fellowship in Faislabad and then joined …
Glaciers that feed the Indus River in Pakistan’s Karakoram mountains are melting faster than previously thought. Saleem Sheikh talks to the scientists behind the latest field research that contradicts earlier satellite studies showing glaciers are relatively stable.
