he government’s enthusiasm for increasing the use of Thar coal in Pakistan’s energy mix has become more pronounced recently. In a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in April, the government decided to convert all imported coal-based power plants to local coal.

The prime minister instructed the Planning Ministry to raise the issue of converting Chinese power plants to local coal with China’s National Development and Reform Commission. In a recently held meeting, Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal took the matter up with the NDRC.

“An in-depth study is under way to shift from imported to local coal for coal-based power generation,” the minister noted. “This shift is expected to reduce Pakistan’s import bill and facilitate payments to Chinese companies,” he added.

The proposed shift from imported to local coal involves five plants—including three commissioned plants at Hub, Port Qasim and Sahiwal; one yet to be developed plant at Gwadar under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor; and one nearly complete but yet to be commissioned Asian Development Bank-funded plant at Jamshoro.

Primacy of Thar coal is not limited to replacement of imported coal. According to a recently launched study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a proposal for retrofitting the existing furnace oil-based power plants with coal-fired boilers so as to run them on Thar coal is also under consideration.

What will be the environmental cost of this shift?

To understand this one must be aware of the nature of fuel being prioritised in this shift and the environmental risks involved in its extraction, transportation and combustion.

The type of coal found in Thar is lignite. Compared to anthracite, bituminous and sub-bituminous coal, lignite contains smaller energy value per mass unit.

Lignite—compared to sub-bituminous coal being currently used in some plants supported under the CPEC—tends to have low energy density. While the energy density of sub-bituminous coal ranges between 20 and 30 megajule per kilogram, the average heat value of Thar coal is 11.6 MJ/kg.

This means that a larger quantity of lignite is needed for producing the same amount of energy.

Lignite is extracted through open cast or surface mining. This poses serious environmental risks such as air pollution, water contamination, land disturbance and habitat destruction. Moreover, land acquisition for mining results in dislocation and livelihood disruptions of the local communities. Some of the communities living in Thar coalfield have already faced these social and environmental problems due to ongoing mining.

Removal of vegetation and topsoil disrupts ecosystems and results in soil erosion, biodiversity losses and fragmentation of wildlife habitats. Dust pollution from the heaps of dumped earth around Thar coal mines have already increased the incidence of respiratory diseases in the nearby villages.

Exposure of sulphide minerals in lignite seams to air and water is causing acid mine drainage, resulting in the release of acidic and heavy metal-rich substances. Open-cast mining in Thar involves dewatering, which is seriously harming the fragile hydrology of the arid zone on one hand and generating large quantities of wastewater on the other.

For the disposal of wastewater, the coal companies have built two reservoirs in Gorano and Dukar Chou. Besides, a water reinjection plant has been installed in Meghay Jor Tar village.

Still, the amount of wastewater generated in coal operations is so large that the companies have been failing to limit its release to the designated disposal sites. Wayward release of wastewater into farmlands and grazing lands is causing land degradation, crop failures and death of domestic animals.

Seepage from the wastewater reservoir at Gorano has polluted the sweet water of dug wells in nearby villages. The villages near Dukar Chou are facing the same fate.

Increasing extraction of coal from the field will complicate the scope and intensity of these environmental problems. The problems will not be confined to the Thar field.

Once mined, the Thar lignite will have to be transported to other parts of the country. For this purpose, a project for the construction of a 105 km long railway track from Islamkot (in Tharparkar district) to Chhor (in Umerkot district) has been approved.

Even if the required infrastructure is in place, transportation of lignite is going to be difficult because it has high water content. Owing to this difficulty, lignite powered plants are mostly located close to the coal mines.

Leaving these logistical challenges aside, coal transportation will have harmful environmental impacts. Coal dust particles from open railway carriages will settle in human lungs all the way from Thar coalfield to the parts of the country where power plants are located and pose serious health and safety hazards.

After it has been mined and transported, the Thar lignite will be burnt at the thermal power plants. As lignite has a larger sulphur and ash content than sub-bituminous coal, the plants will produce more air pollutants per megawatt power.

Coal ash includes toxic substances such as arsenic, selenium, lead and mercury.

While coal is notorious for being the dirtiest fossil fuel, lignite is the dirtiest form of coal. The move to shift all imported coal- and furnace oil-based thermal plants in the country to Thar lignite will be harmful in environmental terms.

Overwhelmed by its financial predicament, the government appears to be ignoring the harmful environmental impact of this shift. It may have underestimated the environmental cost of this change.

Official justification for replacement of imported fuels (coal and furnace oil) with Thar coal in thermal power generation is narrowly based on economic ground. In the short term, the logic may help the government overcome the prohibitive cost of power generation, delayed payments to Chinese companies and ballooning circular debt of the energy sector.

Given the global push for phasing out coal, it is not clear whether an international donor—Chinese banks or the ADB—will support the project.

The writer is an anthropologist and a development professional