by Zarak Khan | 2025-08-12

Pakistani rights groups and local residents are protesting the planned expansion of a Chinese-funded coal project in Thar, Sindh province.

The project is the Engro Thar Block II Coal-Fired Power Plant, accompanied by an extensive open-pit coal mine.

In July, the mine operator and Meezan Bank Limited signed an agreement to increase annual coal production at the mine from 7.6 million tons to 11.2 million tons.

The power plant has been operating since 2019.

Expansion of this project will accelerate environmental degradation and deepen socioeconomic distress, the critics say.

The mine and power plant are a key component of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a Pakistani component of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative.

Pakistan owes about 30% of its $100 billion foreign debt to China, its largest creditor, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Local alarm

On August 6, a meeting convened at the Karachi office of the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), a parliament-mandated institution tasked with safeguarding civil rights.

It brought together civil society representatives, rights activists and residents of the Thar region, according to the NCHR's press release.

The meeting focused on discussing the proposed coal expansion and its socio-environmental ramifications.

Attendees raised concerns about consequences of stepped-up coal mining: further displacement of local villages, damage to arable land, pollution of scarce groundwater and degradation of grazing grounds that sustain farmers' livelihoods.

The residents already endure severe economic hardship alongside mounting environmental fallout, said Sohbat Bheel, an activist from the Hindu minority community residing in Thar, arguably the hardest-hit group.

"Any further expansion threatens to obliterate agricultural fields, contaminate vital groundwater and erode grazing lands," Bheel told Focus.

NCHR representatives assured participants that they would collate the concerns into a comprehensive report for the relevant officials, the NCHR statement said.

Long-term concerns

Since the inception of the Thar coal project, local communities and human rights activists have staged numerous demonstrations across Sindh province, demanding accountability and environmental safeguards.

"First, these coal power projects [meaning both the coal mine and power plant] illegally seized our land, displacing thousands of families without adequate compensation or rehabilitation," Leela Ram, a rights advocate based in Thar, told Focus. "Now, the same projects are contaminating our drinking water and devastating our environment, jeopardizing the future of our children."

Thar's residents face chronic shortages of clean drinking water, inadequate healthcare facilities and limited educational opportunities.

The desert's fragile ecosystem has long been susceptible to climatic extremes, making sustainable development both challenging and critical.

Worrisome studies

Independent studies over the years have highlighted the detrimental impacts of Chinese-operated coal power plants and mines on local water quality, public health and environmental integrity.

A 2023 report by the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, an Oregon-based environmental research organization, assessed drinking water samples from nine locations near the Thar plant.

The findings were alarming: water samples contained elevated concentrations of toxic heavy metals, including selenium, arsenic, mercury, chromium and lead, rendering them unsafe for human consumption. Such contamination poses significant health risks, including neurological disorders, cancer and kidney damage, the report added.

Earlier, a 2021 study titled "Coal Rush: The Impacts of Coal Power Generation on Tharis' Land Rights" by two think tanks observed that despite persistent protests by the indigenous Thari communities, authorities had disregarded their rights to land, water and a clean environment.

A 2020 analysis by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, based in Helsinki, Finland, projected that emissions from coal mining and power plants in Thar could account for approximately 29,000 premature deaths linked to air pollution over the next three decades.