SECMC denies poisoning groundwater in Thar

KARACHI: Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) has refuted the allegations made by Alliance for Climate Justice & Clean Energy (ACJCE) that coal rush in Thar was depleting and poisoning groundwater resources.

Speakers in a webinar claimed that mining activity in Thar was poisoning the precious groundwater resource; however, the fact was that the mining activity was not using any underground sources of water as it did not need water for operations.

Secondly the claim that “percolation of toxic water from Gorano and Dukar Chaou reservoirs; lowering of the water table around mining sites and dumping of wastewater in farmlands have been posing a serious threat to the ecosystem and public health” was also factually incorrect.

As part of mining operations, aquifers above the mine belt need to be dewatered. This ground water once pumped was being deposited at the Gorano Reservoir.

“Dewatering activities do not have any impact on the existing water tables. A baseline study was conducted before the initiation of the project to determine the existing quality and quantity of water at the time. Since then, we have continuously monitored the quantity and quality of water, and our studies indicate that there has been no impact on either of these,” SECMC claimed.

The Gorano reservoir was declared a unique wetland by the globally renowned International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and was serving as a habitat ecosystem for various species of fish and birds in the region.

The water being dewatered to Gorano was neither treated nor effluent and was natural groundwater that was not brine. There has been no contamination from water abstraction and disposal operations for Block II and the said water has often been pumped by nearby villagers for agricultural purposes, too.

This refutes the claims made in the webinar that; “sweet water of the wells surrounding the wastewater reservoirs was getting toxic” and that the “cases of malarial fever and livestock casualties have significantly increased in the area”.