“Gas-hub Balochistan is without gas!”

Two children died in the outskirts of Quetta on February 18 the incident occurred in Khilji Colony due to the non-availability of gas and severe cold temperatures in the Balochistan province. The province which is home to the Pakistan’s biggest natural gas field had been without gas since last few weeks while in other provinces like Sindh and Punjab, natural gas was and is available.

People of Balochistan who were affected by the floods of 2010 as well as the rainfall of 2011 are still living under poor conditions.  About 30 to 40 families are still living in tents as around 582 houses were completely damaged, while 2,168 houses were partially damaged during the torrential monsoon rainfall of 2011. But the miseries of Baloch people continues!

Balochistan this winter

Kalat is one of the coldest cities as well as the violent city in the province where temperatures could reach freezing point that is 10°C to 17°C during winters. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Quetta was on January 8, 1970 that was of -18°C.

Snowfall of 20 inches have occurred in the summer provincial capital Quetta since the beginning of 2012 while temperatures reached minimum of -11°C in the month of January.

Baloch people are suffering!

It has also come to the knowledge of PWP that due to the lack of gas supply, people of Balochistan are spending their winters only on warm clothes as they could not switch on gas heaters to warm themselves. Due to lack of media access in the province, it is believed that more people die during the winters than being told.

Thus it could be true that other than these two children, dozens more might have died in Balochistan due to severe cold temperatures and non-availability of gas this year.