October 03, 2016
Levelling the corridor
The last Chinese and Asian Development Bank loan of $8 billion for the renovation of the railway line from Karachi to Peshawar takes the total investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to over $50 billion. It has now become easily the largest single project in the country’s history and its success will be crucial to our economic prospects for the next 20-30 years. There have been signs of confidence in the CPEC in recent days with both Iran and Saudi Arabia expressing interest in joining it. The sheer alarm India and increasingly the US have shown about the CPEC point to its effectiveness since they are unlikely to be so worried about something doomed for failure. China has pledged a total of $35 billion in the energy sector, which should go a long way towards solving our persistent power crisis, with the rest going for infrastructure development. But there is cause for worry too. A special Senate Standing Committee on the CPEC claimed that the centrepiece of the CPEC – the port in Gwadar – was being ignored and funds allocated for its development were instead spent to upgrade the port in Karachi. It also accused the government of refusing to prioritise the western route of the CPEC, which covers neglected cities like Turbat, Zhob, Burhan and Panjur.
This criticism by the Senate committee has both economic and political ramifications. The CPEC is meant not just for Pakistan’s economic development but specifically for those regions which are under-developed and traditionally neglected by the government. Balochistan, in particular, was wary of the government’s intentions and if it turns out that money for Gwadar was diverted to Karachi that would only confirm Baloch cynicism. This happened earlier too when the government decide to change the route of the CPEC from Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to concentrate on Punjab, claiming that the infrastructure needed for many projects was only in place in Punjab. But the entire point of the CPEC should be to create a level playing field. There are worries about security too and with so many different actors who have a reason to disrupt the CPEC there is a danger that China could be spooked if there were a real security threat. We have too much at stake here; for that reason and more, the CPEC needs a carefully thought-out policy on all levels. On top of the agenda should be a way to ensure all stakeholders get their jitters regarding the corridor put to rest.
Asia’s air
Asia faces an unseen health emergency. The World Health Organization has warned that nine of out 10 people in the world breathe bad air. This is responsible for over six million deaths a year. Most of these deaths are concentrated in low-to-middle income countries in the South Asian, Southeast Asian and Western Pacific region. China is one of the worst affected with smog a regular feature of some of its biggest cities, including Beijing. But other major cities are fast competing to take the title of the city with the worst air quality in the world due to an increase in traffic and rapid industrialization without adherence to air quality standards. In India alone, at least 600,000 people die due to poor air quality. Major cities in South Asia such as Dhaka, Mumbai, New Delhi and Karachi are not far behind in terms of poor air quality. There is no doubt that there is an air quality emergency in the world but our leaders seem to be unconcerned. Despite the historic agreement on climate change in Paris last year, there has been little concrete effort on the ground to improve environmental standards.
The fact is that environmental issues are still thought of as an impediment to development – and this is not unique to Asia. The inability to marry environmental concerns with developmental ideas is a challenge our governments and policy planners face daily. In our own case, after suffering from numerous climate related catastrophes in the last decade, including floods and heatwaves, Pakistan is still committed to building more coal-fired power plants and has a vehicle-centric idea of development. For example, environmental concerns have been completely missing from the conversation on the CPEC. Even a few simple steps would help make things better. One step could be the introduction of hybrid vehicles or enforcement of emission cleanliness standards on both power plants and industries. Needless to say, none of this is happening. Add to that rapid deforestation and the culling of trees in major cities and it becomes obvious why breathing clean air is almost impossible in the more ‘developed’ parts of the country. The lack of obvious health scare – like dengue or Ebola – makes it more difficult to highlight the urgency. Poor air quality is a silent killer. Combating it does not win elections – but it does save lives. And that is what our government and other governments in the developing world must prioritise.