Focus on Arts and Ecology

They ate avocados, pit and all.

BY ANNE EWBANK, JANUARY 9, 2018

LAST DECEMBER, SOCIAL MEDIA BUZZED with a new food innovation: seedless avocados. Available only in a few British supermarkets, they supposedly prevent “avocado hand.” This surprisingly common injury, from knife slippage while prying out avocado seeds, can cause serious nerve and tendon damage. But if we all had digestive systems like the ancient, extinct lestodon, we wouldn’t have this pesky problem. That’s because lestodons could eat avocado pits, which is the only reason we have avocados at all.

Lestodons might sound like toothy, scaly dinosaurs. But these Cenozoic-era creatures were sloths, the direct ancestors of the ones still around today. Lestodons were much, much larger than your typical sloth; they put the “mega” in “megafauna.” Weighing from two to four tons, lestodons, along with other “ground sloths,” roamed grassy plains in South America. Their diet consisted of grass and foliage. But they occasionally ate a more nutritious treat: the early avocado.

Giant sloths, along with megafauna like gomphotheres and glyptodons, feasted on whole avocados and spread their seeds over South America. These enormous creatures’ digestive systems could process large seeds, and avocados benefited. When pooped out, far from their parent trees, the seeds could sprout and grow without competition for water and sunlight. It was a good deal all around, and it likely resulted in avocados as we know them: fatty and large-pitted, all the better to attract huge sloths.

Many big-seeded plants across the Americas, such as osage oranges and honeylocusts, similarly were propagated by megafauna. Until one day, there weren’t any left. Near the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age, a fluctuating climate wiped out many megafauna. (Some survived, such as the much-bigger-than-you-think moose.) Accordingly, the ranges of many of the plants they ate also shrank. Without large creatures around, seeds simply fell to the ground and rotted.

The avocado might have only survived in a valley or two as a small, obscure fruit, if a new propagator hadn’t come along: us. While human hunters likely contributed to the end of the megafauna, both giant sloths and people had something in common: a love for luscious avocado. Though humans weren’t swallowing the fruits whole, they did plant them widely over South and Central America, probably giving themselves avocado hand all along the way.

The maligned avocado pit is what’s called an “evolutionary anachronism.” No sloth on today’s earth is capable of pooping out such a large seed, yet the pit persists. But just as avocados adapted for megafauna, so do we adapt avocados to our needs. Perhaps the avocado pit will go the way of the lestodon.

(Sources: Atlas Obscura)

Brain electrodes designed to mimic the hippocampus appear to boost the encoding of memories—and are twice as effective in people with poor memory. 

“It’s a glimpse into the future of what we might be able to do to restore memory,” says Kim Shapiro, a neuroscientist at the University of Birmingham in the UK, who was not involved in the research.

It works by copying what happens in the hippocampus—a seahorse-shaped region deep in the brain that plays a crucial role in memory. The brain structure not only helps us form short-term memories but also appears to direct memories to other regions for long-term storage.

Mimicking memory

For more than 10 years, Theodore Berger and Dong Song at the University of Southern California and their colleagues have been developing a way to mimic this process. Their idea is to use brain electrodes to understand the electrical patterns of activity that occur when memories are encoded, and then use those same electrodes to fire similar patterns of activity.

The team has tested versions of this prosthesis in animals and in some human volunteers with epilepsy who already had electrodes implanted in their brains in order to better understand and treat their condition. 

To find out if it might help people with poor memory, Rob Hampson, a neuroscientist at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, and his colleagues tested two versions of the memory prosthesis in 24 people who had implanted electrodes to study their epilepsy, some of whom also had brain injuries.

The first version, which the team calls a memory decoding model (MDM), mimics patterns of electrical activity across the hippocampus that occur naturally when each volunteer successfully forms memories. The MDM model takes an average of these patterns across each individual and then fires off this pattern of electrical stimulation.

The second type, called multi-input, multi-output (or MIMO), more closely mimics how the hippocampus works. In a healthy hippocampus, electrical activity flows from one layer to another before spreading to other brain regions. The MIMO model is based on learning the patterns of electrical inputs and outputs that correspond with memory encoding, and then mimicking them.

Unique brains

To test how well each of the models works, Hampson and his colleagues asked the volunteers to take part in memory tests. In the tests, each person was shown an image on a computer screen. After a delay, the same image was presented again, along with a selection of others. The person had to choose which was the image that had already been shown. Each volunteer completed around 100 to 150 of these short tasks, which are designed to test a person’s short-term memory.

Between 15 and 90 minutes later, each person underwent a second test—this time being shown a set of three images and asked to choose which was most familiar. This test indicates a person’s long-term memory.

The volunteers undertook both rounds of memory tests twice—once to record from the hippocampus, and once to stimulate those recorded patterns associated with successfully stored memories. The recordings were unique, says Hampson: “So far we find that it’s different for each person.”

The team found that its memory prosthesis improved the volunteers’ performances on memory tests—their scores were significantly higher if they had received the correct pattern of stimulation when first presented with the images. This suggests that the memory prosthesis can help encode memories in the brain, the researchers say. “We’re seeing improvements that range from 11% to 54%,” says Hampson.

Personalizing brain stimulation in this way is “a really important thing to be doing,” says Josh Jacobs at Columbia University, who also studies brain recordings from people with epilepsy but was not involved in the current research. So far, doctors and scientists have had some success in treating disorders like Parkinson’s disease by simply targeting the same brain region in all individuals.

“But individuals have really different brain responses,” says Jacobs. Customizing stimulation to individual brains is likely to improve its impact, he says.

The MIMO model, which more closely mirrors how the hippocampus works, had even better results, on average. And the biggest improvements were seen in people who had the worst memory performance at the start of the experiment. The researchers aren’t sure why this is, but it could be because there’s “more room for improvement,” says Hampson. 

All the volunteers had their electrodes removed within a couple of weeks, once their doctors had completed investigations into their epilepsy. But Song hopes the improvements to their memories will be lasting. In theory, the stimulation each person received could have strengthened the wiring of neurons in the hippocampus, he says: “We don’t really know, but we hope so.”

Restoring memory

Song, Hampson, and their colleagues, who published their findings in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in July, hope that their memory prosthesis could one day be widely used to restore memory in people with memory disorders.

“Brain injury patients would be the first [candidates],” says Song. Such injuries tend to affect specific regions of the brain. Injuries to the hippocampus would be easier to target than degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, which tend to involve damage across many regions of the brain.

“It seems possible to me that one day we could replace a hippocampus with something else,” says Jacobs. But he points out that it will be difficult to fully replicate a healthy hippocampus—the structure contains tens of millions of neurons. “It is a little hard to imagine how a handful of electrodes could be replacing the millions of neurons in the hippocampus,” he says.

WAKE FOREST MEDICAL CENTER

The electrodes used in the study are around a millimeter wide, and all the volunteers had them implanted deep enough into the brain to reach the hippocampus—around 10 centimeters deep. They are fairly crude by modern research standards and are only able to record from around 40 to 100 neurons, says Song. Any memory prosthesis designed to treat memory disorders will require brain electrodes with hundreds of contact points, allowing them to record from, and stimulate, hundreds or thousands of neurons, he says.

Hampson, Song, and their colleagues haven’t yet worked out how the memory prosthesis might work in practice. It might not make sense to have the device running all the time, for example—there are plenty of life experiences, such as taking out the garbage, that people with memory disorders don’t need to remember. “Why waste the [brain] space?” Jacobs says.

Song thinks the prosthesis might be used alongside some sort of device that can tell whether the device needs to be running or not—perhaps by detecting when the brain needs to be in a ready-to-learn state.

And Song doesn’t yet know if a memory prosthesis should run overnight, either. It is thought that when we sleep, the hippocampus replays some of the memories encoded during the day, in order to consolidate them in other brain regions. Song and his colleagues don’t know if a memory prosthesis that replicates this replay would improve memory, or whether it’s a good idea to stimulate the hippocampus at all while a person is sleeping.

Either way, the prosthesis is still some way from clinical use, says Shapiro. “I think in principle it could work,” he says. “[But] we have a long way to go before we understand enough about memory to be able to use this sort of approach to replace hippocampal function.”

(Sources: MIT Technology Review)

Just one river is due to have 36 hydropower projects, with local people saying the impacts of tunnelling the mountainside are already forcing them to leave their homes. 

By Shristi Kafle, March 15, 2023

In a bright winter’s morning, a small group of women gather in the tiny yard behind a makeshift shelter. They spread cereals out on the ground to dry, knit handicrafts, drink tea, and enjoy the warmth of the sun. As they start their day, they talk about how they miss their homes, gardens and livestock.

The women are all indigenous residents of Purano Syabrubesi village, in central Nepal’s Bagmati province. In August 2021, they had to flee their homes, which were in the path of massive boulders brought down by a landslide. Dikki Rani, a displaced resident, says: “I had never seen such big rocks falling before in my life. We felt safer even during the earthquake of 2015.”

The women and their families are still living with the consequences of the disaster. Two years ago, Binita Tamang says she was running a small guest house in Purano Syabrubesi, which is an ancient gateway to a popular trekking route in Langtang National Park. “My life was perfect, I had a seasonal income source from tourism, vegetables in the backyard, goats and chicken around, and a community.”

But after the landslide “all of a sudden, we became homeless”, 42-year-old Tamang tells The Third Pole. Thirty-two households were affected, and more than 100 people are still living in two temporary shelters when The Third Pole visits the village in December 2022.

The women tell The Third Pole they believe that the landslide was triggered by explosions to create a tunnel for the 20 MW Langtang Khola hydropower project, just a few hundred metres from their village. The plant is being built on the Bhotekoshi River, which flows into the Trishuli River and is part of the Ganga River basin.

Cause of landslide debated as hydropower boom in Nepal continues

Kaisang Nurpu Tamang, chair of Gosaikunda rural municipality (which the village of Purano Syabrubesi falls within), agrees that the damage is linked to the project activity. “It is true that there was damage by the earthquake of 2015 in this area, but there is damage even in the houses that are newly constructed, including our own office building,” Tamang says.

The municipality building, which was built after the 2015 earthquake, has cracks in its windowpanes, beams and outer walls, he adds. The municipality has hired a private consultancy to study the damage across the village and is waiting for its report.

Janardan Aryal is general manager of the Langtang Khola project, which is being developed by Kathmandu-based construction company Multi Energy Development. Aryal rejects the arguments of residents and the local government. “We had conducted necessary geological studies before starting the project, so [the landslide was] not due to blasting. It’s purely a technical issue so now requires more study by the government.”

Nepal produces nearly all of its electricity from hydropower, and exporting electricity to its neighbours is an important source of income for the country. It therefore plans to reach 15,000 megawatts of installed hydropower capacity by 2030. There are 123 large hydropower plants (with a capacity of more than 1 MW) operating in Nepal, with a total capacity of nearly 2,150 MW. Data from the Department of Electricity Development shows that projects with a combined capacity of 3,280 MW are being built. A further 100 projects with a total capacity of nearly 7,620 MW are waiting to be granted construction licences, as of 3 March 2023.

Central Nepal is a particular hotspot for hydropower: more than 60% of large plants in the country are in Bagmati or Gandaki provinces. Of the projects awaiting construction licences, there are about 1.3 times more proposed projects in Gandaki and Bagmati than the remaining five provinces combined. Gandaki and Bagmati have large rivers that carry substantial volumes of water, have high base flows and other favourable conditions for hydropower, as well as access to infrastructure like roads and transmission lines.

In Bagmati, which is home to more than 6 million people and is Nepal’s second-most populous province, hydropower projects have the potential to disrupt thousands of people’s lives.

Just on the Bhotekoshi and its tributaries, seven hydropower projects are currently in operation and at least three others are under construction, according to an official from the Sindhupalchowk District Coordination Committee. As of 2018 – the latest year for which comprehensive data is available – there were plans for 36 hydropower projects on the Trishuli river and its tributaries, with 23 at the planning stage with survey licences issued.

‘Our future looks very uncertain’

The temporary accommodation for Purano Syabrubesi residents has been built by the confluence of the Bhotekoshi and Langtang rivers, and most of the displaced families living there are from the indigenous Tamang and Lama communities. Young people from the affected families have left in search of work in Kathmandu and abroad, while women and older people remain.

“All our family members – as many as five people – live in a single congested room where we cook, eat, and sleep together,” says homemaker Pema Lama. “This has made our lives miserable. It’s more difficult for elderly people as they often get sick.”

The residents say they want to return to the village, but it first needs to be made safe. This could involve measures such as building retaining walls that hold back soil in the event of further tremors.

The families tell The Third Pole they have contacted local government representatives, politicians and officials from the hydropower project about their situation several times. “No one has told us about possible resettlement or provided any compensation to date. Our busy ancestral village has turned into a ghost town, while our future looks very uncertain,” says 58-year-old Khamsung Tamang, a junior officer at the Langtang National Park, who has worked there for over two decades.

“We are discussing the temporary fixing of the slope, but for the large scope of works, we need huge budget and resources, which we lack,” says municipality chair Tamang. “We have also been holding talks with the hydro project developer for arranging compensation, but we haven’t reached any understanding so far.”

Aryal points out that Multi Energy Development gave a half million Nepali rupees (about USD 3,800) to local people on humanitarian grounds to ease the housing problems. “It’s not our fault,” Aryal states.

A widespread problem across central Nepal

Similar problems are happening in Sindhupalchowk, another district in Bagmati province. In the rural municipality of Bhotekoshi, which is mostly populated by Tamang and Sherpa communities, residents of six villages, home to 600 families, have been protesting for over a year against the construction of the Sailung hydropower project. Under this, a tunnel for the plant, which is still at the planning stage, will pass directly beneath homes in the village of Lukusingh.

Even without the construction work residents say new cracks are appearing in their homes, as landslides during the monsoon weaken them.

Ratna Kumari from Lukusingh says: “We have no idea when the landslides will kill us. We go through sleepless nights during the monsoon. The Bhotekoshi River cuts down from below the village, while soil erosion causes landslides from above. Our houses are sinking.”

The villagers fear that a tunnel beneath their homes will worsen the situation and displace them from their land. In April 2022 they travelled to the capital and filed a case in the Patan High Court. A lawyer for the villagers, who asks not to be named, says this is the second case they have filed. In the previous case, they were awarded compensation in relation to a separate project, which is at the implementation phase. However, the lawyer says, “they haven’t received the compensation from the previous one yet. And this project will impact not just settlements but also schools, temples and monasteries that fall under Department of Archaeology.” The second case is ongoing.

“We need hydro projects, we need development in this area, but if the local community is displaced and does not have any involvement in the process, what is the use of these projects?” asks Norbu Gyaljen Sherpa, a resident of Panthali, another affected village. He says that the public consultation done for the proposed project was inadequate.

Hydropower in Nepal: do the dangers outweigh the benefits?

Studies have shown that Sindhupalchowk has a complex and fragile geography. Floods and landslides every monsoon result in loss of life and damage to property: in 2014, a landslide killed 156 people.

DB Budhathoki, a local activist from Lukusingh, says that the “already fragile landscape cannot withstand the construction activities. We are in a sensitive zone, thus there shouldn’t be deliberate negligence on addressing our voices. We might turn into refugees. This will be an example of destruction in the name of development.”

Ranjan Kumar Dahal, an engineering geologist and geo-hazard expert, who is associate professor in the geology department at Tribhuvan University, tells The Third Pole that tunnel blasting is often done in a controlled way, depending upon the site condition. He says developers should have a clear understanding of terrain, rock structures, slopes and seismic risks, among other details.

However, “we are still adopting an absolutely conservative approach to do these studies instead of using modern technology. Our studies are same as they used to be decades ago. Modern geological science should be adopted with honesty,” says Dahal.

In 2018, the Nepali government published a Hydropower Environmental Impact Assessment manual. Dahal expresses dissatisfaction over its implementation. In addition, socio-economic impacts are often ignored, he adds.

The Third Pole made multiple attempts to contact the Nepal Electricity Authority about the concerns raised, but did not receive a response. Last month, Nepal’s energy secretary told local media that “other sources of energy will be expensive; they will not be viable for us. Instead of panicking, we should rather focus on generating hydropower.”

As more hydropower projects are built, the question now is how many does Nepal need, and at what cost?

Dipak Gyawali, one of the top water experts in South Asia and Nepal’s former minister of water resources, is of view that disasters are often created by ‘bad development’ practices. “Disasters are unfinished business of maldevelopment. What happens between disasters is more important than what happens after the disasters,” he tells The Third Pole.

With the rivers going dry and springs drying up, Gyawali feels the recent Joshimath disaster in the Indian state of Uttarakhand is already being replicated in Nepal. “It’s just that the authorities don’t care. Nobody desires environmental studies in Nepal. It’s limited to formalities.”

“The current scale of hydropower development in Nepal is absolute madness. Being self-reliant in energy is fine, but developing hydros just for future trade with other countries raises practical questions like ‘Is it feasible? Is it realistic?’” Gyawali says.

As the mercury rises in the capital city of Dhaka, journalist Nasib Ahsan shares his experience battling South Asia’s hottest temperatures. 

Video: Nasib Ahsan, Words:: Shalinee Kumari, March 27, 2023

Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part video series that explores how people in some of South Asia’s hottest towns and cities experience crippling heatwaves. Filmed at the height of last year’s heatwave in May, and published on the cusp of this year’s hot season, vloggers from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan use video diaries to share a day in their lives in times of intense heat.

Through these vlogs, we explore the human impacts of soaring temperatures through the experiences of journalists from diverse backgrounds in three different countries. Complementing our reporting and analysis on the science of the climate crisis, the series depicts what it means to live in a region highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

As Nasib Ahsan, a multimedia journalist based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, prepares to film his vlog in the morning of 19 May 2022, the temperature outside is already 30 degrees Celsius. Given the high humidity, it feels much hotter.

Ahsan’s job requires him to travel all over Bangladesh. But on this day, he’s heading into the office. En route, he moves through Dhaka’s traffic jams in scorching heat. People around him are drenched in sweat. Stalls selling sugarcane juice and coconut water offer glimmers of relief, but the price has risen given increased demand.

Ahsan reaches his office overheated and exhausted. His home and office are air-conditioned, but the comfort of cool air does not extend to the streets, nor the many people in Dhaka who work outdoors all day long. Like Ahsan, many in Bangladesh’s hottest cities are struggling.

In 2023, a mild heatwave had already arrived in parts of Bangladesh by mid-March. Last year, temperatures reached 39C in areas of Rajshahi and Syedpur in July, raising concerns over risk to the country’s agriculture. Along with health implications, extreme heatwaves are driving losses in labour productivity worth around USD 6 billion to Dhaka’s economy every year.

Those who suffer the most from heatwaves in South Asia are often vulnerable and low-income groups, who may have less access to cooling, and be less able to withstand the impacts of extreme heat on their health and livelihoods. Many people across Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, who share similarities in climate, society and culture, are in the same boat when it comes to battling heatwaves. And while government guidelines may aim to offer help and guidance, support for the hardest hit is far from enough.

VIDEO

Nasib Ahsan

Nasib Ahsan is a multimedia journalist based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He graduated from the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh and currently works as a content creator with Prothom Alo.

WORDS

Shalinee Kumari

Shalinee Kumari is an editorial assistant at The Third Pole. Prior to this role, she has worked as a digital journalism trainee with BBC Hindi. She is a postgraduate in Convergent Journalism from AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

(Sources: The Third Pole)

Progress towards the construction of a China-funded coal power plant in Gwadar raises questions about the climate pledges of both China and Pakistan. 

By Zofeen Ebrahim, March 16, 2023

News that the Pakistan government plans to secure financing and start construction on a long-stalled 300 megawatt coal-fired power plant in the port city of Gwadar has triggered a debate on the direction of the country’s energy sector. Set to be built and funded by Chinese state-owned entities, recent developments have also raised fresh questions about China’s pledge – made at the UN General Assembly in 2021 – not to build any new coal power plants overseas.

The Gwadar coal power plant was first conceived in 2016, with an estimated cost of USD 542.32 million. It is to be constructed by the Chinese company CIHC Pak Power, a subsidiary of the state-owned China Communications and Construction Group. The plant was recently reported to have secured financing from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China’s largest commercial bank. Once completed, it is intended to supply power, on a priority basis, to the industries being set up at the Gwadar Free Zone (GFZ), a special economic zone at Gwadar port that forms part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the USD 62 billion bilateral infrastructure and connectivity project between China and Pakistan.

The environmental impacts of coal power – from local air and water pollution to carbon emissions – have made the project controversial.

“We are pushing the Chinese company to complete its financial closure by 31 December 2023, and start construction at the earliest so that it can be completed by 2025,” Shah Jahan Mirza, managing director of the Pakistan government-owned Private Power and Infrastructure Board told The Third Pole. “Electricity shortage is the biggest impediment to developing Gwadar,” he said.

Pakistan’s energy sector is dominated by fossil fuels. According to the country’s Finance Division, as of April 2022, just under 60% of total installed generation capacity used fossil fuels, including gas, oil and coal. Just 3% of generated electricity in the 2022 fiscal year came from non-hydropower renewables. Pakistan’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) ­– its climate pledge under the Paris Agreement – targets 60% renewable energy generation by 2030, including hydropower. The NDC also states: “From 2020, new coal power plants are subject to a moratorium.”

Speaking with The Third Pole, Lashari said the support is “not only a violation of [China’s] pledge to not build any overseas coal power plants, but it has undermined the battle against global warming and climate change”.

While construction of the Gwadar plant has not yet commenced, Bao of the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad said: “The preparation for construction of the power plant is almost ready and it would be unfortunate if hurdles come in its way.”

According to Mirza, the delay in starting construction was due to “problems in land acquisition and environmental approvals by the Balochistan government as well as lenders and Chinese state-funded insurance company Sinosure approvals”. Although the tariff (the rate at which the Chinese company will sell electricity) had been determined in 2019, the land acquisition for the plant did not happen until 2020 and the power purchase agreement between the Chinese company and GFZ was signed in early 2021. 

The Pakistan government had attempted to persuade Chinese partners to shift the project to Thar, a district of Pakistan’s Sindh Province which is rich in lignite coal reserves, in order to use domestic coal and so save on precious foreign exchange. Block II of the Thar coal mine is a CPEC project.

“Shifting the plant to Thar would mean including this as a new coal project and China has taken a principled stand not to support new coal projects,” Bao told The Third Pole. She added that China was well aware of environmental issues around coal. “We have scrutinised the plant from every angle, including the environmental one, and tried to look at alternatives. Coal is the only feasible fuel. We want to help Pakistan develop Gwadar, and bring in investment; the only way to be able to attract investors is to give it sustainable power,” she said.

Solar versus coal in Gwadar

Questions have also been raised around how the Gwadar coal power plant fits into the Pakistan government’s long term energy policies. In 2020, Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan announced to the world at the Climate Ambition Summit that Pakistan had “decided that we will not have any more power based on coal”, and that two power projects approved under CPEC that were to use imported coal – at Muzaffargarh and Rahim Yar Khan – had been scrapped. He also said that with regards to indigenous coal, Pakistan would focus on producing energy through coal liquefaction or gasification, “so that we do not have to burn coal to produce energy.”

Last year, it was reported that the Pakistan government was trying to persuade China to replace funding for the coal plant at Gwadar with investment in solar plants of equivalent capacity.

“It was a positive step,” said Haneea Isaad, energy finance analyst at think tank the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). “Going back on that announcement was a negation of the pledge made by the previous government in 2020 to not produce any more power from imported coal,” she said.

Given the devastating impacts of climate change-related extreme weather events that Pakistan has experienced in recent years, Lashari of PRIED argued that both the Chinese and Pakistani governments should “reconsider” their decision to pursue construction of the coal power plant in Gwadar, and instead “replace it with an environmentally clean and green renewable energy project”.

Khalid Mansoor, former special assistant to the prime minister on CPEC affairs, disagrees. He said it may be “fashionable to discuss use of cleaner fuel sources”, but with the GFZ entering its second phase of expansion, this will require huge amounts of uninterrupted power. Mansoor argued that this can only be provided using gas, oil, or coal. “The 300 MW coal power plant will be a lifeline for Gwadar,” he asserted.

This was supported by minister Iqbal who said: “In our case, a stable baseload is only possible with coal, which is also the cheapest option.”

“Solar power can be used for homes and other smaller ventures and as a complement to the coal plant; it cannot provide undisturbed electricity to big industries,” agreed Mirza.

The cost of importing coal

Shah Jahan Mirza of Pakistan’s Private Power and Infrastructure Board confirmed to The Third Pole that the Gwadar power plant is to use high-quality imported coal, not the lignite coal produced in the Tharparkar coal mines of Pakistan’s Sindh province.

“Had we used Thar coal at the Gwadar power plant, not only would it have reduced the power tariff for customers, it would have reduced our import bill,” said Mansoor. “But without a railway line, it was logistically not possible to transport lignite Thar coal, right now.”

“The coal project at Gwadar was conceived several years back when coal was cheap and there were other projects on imported coal being set up in the country,” said Vagar Zakaria, an energy expert with environmental consulting firm Hagler Bailley Pakistan. “The economics don’t work out now with coal prices so much higher,” he added.

Zakaria was perplexed as to why China would want to build a coal-fired power plant to sell power to Pakistan when the latter “cannot pay back with current shortage of forex and debts accumulated in the power sector.” He said: “If I were China, I would be cautious about blocking capital in Gwadar.”

IEEFA’s Isaad worries that expanding coal imports will “exacerbate the economic hardships we’re facing today”, coming at a time when Pakistan is dealing with a severe foreign exchange crisis. Ultimately, she said, “power planning needs to be dissociated from the political whims of the ruling party.”