Pakistan: Climate Change No Longer a Myth But a Reality

on 27/07/2018

Rapid Melting Of Glaciers Wreak Havoc across Gilgit Baltistan.

Rapid melting of glaciers wreaked havoc across Gilgit Baltistan marooning large swathes of cultivated lands and properties and blocking several major roads due to floodwater and consequent landslides.

Climate change has affected the area which faces to the glaciers feeding the river system in Pakistan and in its surroundings.

Two people were killed when a family was hit by floodwaters on the first day of the disaster. Also, floodwaters from the Gonarforam stream hit a mother, her daughter and her son in the Goharabad valley of Diamer district. The mother and daughter drowned in the flow.

A suspension bridge also collapsed in the Niat valley of Diamer district.

Floodwaters from the Gonarforam stream also blocked the Karakoram Highway and inundated large tracks of cultivated land. Traffic between Gilgit-Baltistan and the rest of the country remained suspended as a result.

Flooding and land erosion badly hit the road leading to and from the Hisper valley of Nagar district, thus severing its link with the rest of the country.

Landslides also damaged crops and water channels in the Daskin valley of Astore district.

Floodwaters from rivers and streams blocked link roads, marooning people living in remote parts of Gilgit, Diamer and Baltistan divisions.

Floodwaters poured out of the Batsuwat nullah in the Ishkoman valley of Ghizer district. The flow of the Immit river has been blocked, creating a lake. The upstream areas remained cut off from the rest of the country.

The lake had inundated an area spanning about two kilometers, submerging more than 30 houses, cattle farms, vehicles, and infrastructure, local administration said.

Experts emphasize the need for carrying out hazard and risk assessment of the entire region and establishing early flood warning systems at the village level to help communities fight the challenge.

Land-use planning is important and infrastructure development in areas highly prone to weather events should be avoided.

They suggest plantation of carefully chosen species of trees that could help reduce floods` intensity and cool off glaciers.

Dr. Ghulam Rasul, the director general of Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) says the fast melting glaciers pose the greatest disaster risk to Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral. I see massive deforestation that the region has experienced over the decades as a major factor behind this situation.

The small glacier has been found to be both retreating and advancing in recent years, a natural behavior. `Part of it recently fell and blocked the river. Since it broke off from a fairly high altitude, it caused damage,` he said.

Dr. Rasul is concerned over the rising incidents of glacial lake outburst floods and links it to rising temperature of the region. Sharing some climatic data, he said while the temperature in the whole country had risen by one-degree centigrade, the Gilgit-Baltistan region had witnessed an increase of 1.5 degrees centigrade.

Dr. Babar Khan, the regional head of World Wide for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) who was earlier looking after the Gilgit-Baltistan region on behalf of his organisation, said that though the recent glacier melting, the resulting formation of a lake and subsequent flooding was not a new phenomenon, there was a need to take into account the factors causing it.

`Over the past two weeks, the temperature has increased in the region. Daytime has been hot while temperature significantly drops in the evenings.

`If you see over 100 years of PMD data, you will realize that winters in the region are getting shorter and summers getting longer and hotter.

`The overall weather pattern is changing. Earlier, the winter peak season was November to January with heavy snowfall. Now, it has shifted towards January, February, and March.

This year snowfall was in April. The result is that the snow is not getting converted into ice,` he explained.

According to him, it`s actually the partially compacted snow that melts rapidly with increase in temperature and results in flooding.

Climate change, he said, was no longer a myth but a reality. `The sooner we realize this the better.

There is a need for creating public awareness, carrying out hazard and risk assessments of the entire region, restricting land-use and going for plantation campaigns.

`We must take help from latest technology as well and opt for community-based early flood warning systems.

Don`t cut the existing vegetation and plant more, for instance, sea buckthorn, a plant that helps trap large slit and controls erosion apart from having many medicinal properties,` he said.

Most of the glaciers in the region, he said, were black because of high debris content, another reason for their rapid melting as they absorbed radiation more.

`Mountains have permafrost, perennially frozen ground, which should be studied so that their role in climate change is understood better,` he said.

A beam of invisibility Cloaking technologies could become a reality

on 27/07/2018

Once thought of as the province of only “Star Trek” or “Harry Potter,” cloaking technologies could become a reality with a specially designed material that can mask itself from other forms of light when it is hit with a “beam of invisibility,” a new study says.
Theoretically, most “invisibility cloaks” would work by smoothly guiding light waves around objects so the waves ripple along their original trajectories as if nothing were there to obstruct them. Previous work found that cloaking devices that redirect other kinds of waves, such as sound waves, are possible as well.
But the new study’s researchers, from at the Technical University of Vienna, have developed a different strategy to render an object invisible — using a beam of invisibility.
Complex materials such as sugar cubes are opaque because their disorderly structures scatter light around inside them multiple times, said study senior author Stefan Rotter, a theoretical physicist at the Technical University of Vienna.
“A light wave can enter and exit the object, but will never pass through the medium on a straight line,” Rotter said in a statement. “Instead, it is scattered into all possible directions.”
With their new technique, Rotter and his colleagues did not want to reroute the light waves.
“Our goal was to guide the original light wave through the object, as if the object was not there at all. This sounds strange, but with certain materials and using our special wave technology, it is indeed possible,” study co-author Andre Brandstötter, a theoretical physicist at the Technical University of Vienna, said in the statement.
The concept involves shining a beam, such as a laser, onto a material from above to pump it full of energy. This can alter the material’s properties, making it transparent to other wavelengths of light coming in from the side. Reality will be sensed soon.
“To achieve this, a beam with exactly the right pattern has to be projected onto the material from above — like from a standard video projector, except with much higher resolution,” study lead author Konstantinos Makris, now at the University of Crete in Greece, said in a statement.
The pattern that is projected onto an object to render it invisible must correspond perfectly to the inner irregularities of that item that usually scatters light, the researchers said.
“Every object we want to make transparent has to be irradiated with its own specific pattern, depending on the microscopic details of the scattering process inside,” Rotter said in a statement. “The method we developed now allows us to calculate the right pattern for any arbitrary scattering medium.”
Rotter and his colleagues are now carrying out experiments to see whether their idea will actually reality work. “We think that an experiment would be easiest to perform in acoustics,” Rotter told Live Science. For instance, loudspeakers could generate sound waves to make a tube “transparent” to other forms of sound.
“For me, personally, the most surprising aspect is that this concept works at all,” Rotter said. “There may be many more surprises when digging deeper along these lines.”
Eventually, similar research could also experiment with light, he said. Such work could have applications in telecommunication networks, Rotter said. “It is clear, however, that considerable work is still required to get this from the stage of fundamental research to practical applications,” Rotter said

Tahir Masood takes over as new MD NESPAK

on 27/07/2018

Engr. Dr. Tahir Masood has taken over the charge of Managing Director/President of NESPAK, according to a recent notification issued by the Ministry of Energy (Power Division).
Dr. Tahir Masood is a well-known professional engineer of Pakistan who possesses a highly distinguished academic and professional record. He secured the second position in B.Sc. Civil Engg. (Honours) in 1983 at UET Lahore and was awarded a Silver Medal and a Merit Scholarship by the Govt. of Pakistan for Graduate Studies. He obtained M.S. in Civil Engg. in 1986 and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering in 1990, both from the University of California, Berkeley, USA.
A diehard Civil Engineer by profession, Dr. Masood is well-versed with the various disciplines of engineering and carries a diverse work record of 34 years in Corporate Management, Project Management, Geotechnical, Hydro & Thermal Power Engineering, and Dams. He started his career as a junior engineer with NESPAK back in 1984 and later served on key positions in other high profile engineering organizations like M/s Balfour Kilpatrick Limited (from 1996 to 2000) and M/s Habib Rafiq Pvt. Limited (from 2001 to 2006). Before assuming the charge of MD NESPAK, he was serving as the Chief Executive Officer of M/s Berkeley Associates (Pvt) Ltd.
During his illustrious career, he has worked on many mega projects of national importance such as 1223 MW CCPP Balloki, 1180 MW CCPP Bhikki Power Project, 2×330 MW Engro Thar Coal-Fired Power Project, Sind-Engro Coal Mining Project, Orange Line Metro Train Project, Tarbela 4thExtension Project, 1450 MW Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project, Chashma Hydropower Project, Khanki Barrage Project and a large number of hydropower and dam projects across the country.
Dr. Masood has been an avid writer and has a large number of technical publications to his credit. He has also been a Guest Speaker at many institutions including UET Lahore, Govt. Engineering Academy, Lahore etc. In the field of research, he has served as a Research Engineer at the University of California at Berkeley, USA. Registered as a Professional Engineer with Pakistan Engineering Council, Dr. Tahir Masood has many active professional affiliations as Member American Society of Civil Engineers, Member Pakistan Institute of Engineers, General Secretary Pakistan Geotechnical Engineering Society and Member International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering.
As head of Pakistan’s premier consultancy organization viz. NESPAK, he would certainly contribute towards its growth as well as of engineering fraternity through his management skills and diversified rich experience

‘Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project shady’

on 27/07/2018

NAB to investigate the project, report to PHC by Sept 5

The Peshawar High Court PHC has questioned transparency in the matters of the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project and asked the National Accountability Bureau to look into delays, cost escalation, and award of the contract.

On the bench, Justic Waqar  Ahmad Seth and Justice Mussarat Hilali have ordered to complete the inquiry and submit a report by Sept 5.

The bench heard the arguments at great length and feel it appropriate to refer the matter to the NAB authorities for conducting proper investigation/inquiry as 50 % scope of the work has been enhanced and the project exceeded completion dates which were 21st/ 24th June 2018.

The project was initially approved with the cost of Rs49.3 billion and revised PC-I was moved with Rs67.9 billion.

The bench observed: `We have been informed that the contract has been given to a firm, which was blacklisted in the same type of work by another province, under mala fide intention. We have also been informed that from different necessary project schemes, the amount has been allocated for this project without considering the fact that the other projects were also necessary and important for a public purpose.’

The court found the delay, the contract awarding process, feasibility and all the issues relating to the project of Peshawar Sustainable Bus Rapid Transit Corridor Project (BRT) are all shady and shaky. Thus, the NAB authorities were directed to conduct proper investigation/inquiry transparency of the project and submit its report before the next date.

One petition was filed jointly by former provincial minister Amanullah Haqqani and citizen Wali Khan and the other by an environmentalist Abid Zareef.

Later, the  PDA However announced that it would challenge the high court’s NAB inquiry order in the Supreme Court as the BRT contract was awarded by the company approved by the Asian Development Bank in accordance with the law as declared by the high court.

In a statement issued here, the PDA claimed that the project contractor was considered to be a pioneer in the start of metro bus services in the country.

It added that the decision to blacklist the contractor by the Lahore Development Authority had already been set aside by the Lahore High Court.

The PDA said the authorities of the project had already been cooperating with the NAB and had provided it all the relevant record. The delay in completion of the project, it is added, was because of changes in the design at several places due to which the cost of the project had also enhanced.

FDI remains flat at $2.76 billions!

on 27/07/2018

The foreign direct investment (FDI) remained flat at $2.76 billion during 2017-18, showing a meager increase of 0.8 per cent over the preceding fiscal year.

However, the share of Chinese investment ($1,585 million) increased to 57pc of the total inflows during the nscal ended on June 30. The share of Chinese investment was 44pc of the total FDI in FY17. It indicated that inflows from other than China have declined in FY18.

Second largest FDI was received from Britain which was around $278m compared to $215m in FY17. Hong Kong, Malaysia and USA were other significant investors with $140m, $127m and $92m respectively.

The sector-wise information provided by the State Bank showed that the biggest attraction was power sector as the inflows reached $885m in FY18. In FY17, the inflow for the same sector was $700m.

Construction industry kept its strong growth intact during this year with an inflow of $707m much higher than $466m noted in FY17. The industry has been receiving massive foreign investments inflows for the last three years.

Oil and gas exploration attracted $194m during FY18 compared to $146m in FY17.

The food sector got a surprise with a sharp decline in the FDI. The inflows in this sector were $525m in FY17 while it reduced to just $105m in FY18. Last fiscal year saw a large investment food sector as Fries land Campinas, a Dutch company, bought 51pc shares in Engro Foods for around $450m.

The financial sector also succeeded in attracting a significant investment of $276m compared to $296m in the FY17.

However, the telecom sector showed improvement compared to last year as the sector had witnessed net outflow of $91m in FY17. In FY18 the sector received $72m FDL The trade and transport sectors also showed improvement as they received $94m and $74m respectively; much better than previous year