NATURAL RESOURCES AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (Informative Article)

Mineral power and forest resources are the foundation of economic development. They help in giving an initial push to the raising of production in all sector of the economy. If the quality of manpower is high in a country. It will make the best use of the natural resources and attain development in the shortest possible period of time. Human and natural resources are thus both determining factors in economic development.

In this article we, briefly examine the importance, quality and the quality of the mineral power and forest resources available in Pakistan.

     1.MINIRAL RESOURCES

The minerals, like the forest, are the precious wealth of a country. These are extracted from earth. Some minerals like coal, iron, copper etc. are found in solid forms and some like gas, petrol, oil etc., are discovered in liquid shape.

Pakistan is quite rich in mineral resources compared to many other developing countries of the world. The mining sector has largely remained under developed due to financial constraint, heavy reliance on advanced countries for the discovery of mineral wealth, scarcity of trained personnel at home, etc.

1.Natural Gas.

 The importance of natural gas in Pakistan has been increasing rapidly. It is used in industry to produce consumer goods, to generate electricity, to manufacture fertilizer & in the transport sector in its compressed from (CNG). To meet the increasing demand Government of Pakistan is making efforts to increase its production at present the balance recoverable reserve have been estimated at 26.62 trillion cubic feet.The production of gas per day stood at 4050.84 Millions cubic feet during July-March 2010-11 as compared to 4048.76 Million cubic feet during last year.                      

LPG: (Liquefied Petroleum Gas)

The LPG is economical, clear, and environmental friendly fuel. It is the most popular domestic fuel in areas where supply of natural gas is technically or operationally not feasible.

CNG: (Compressed Natural Gas)

To reduce expensive imported fuel and to improve environment. The govt., is encouraging the use of CNG in vehicle. As a result Pakistan has been reported By PES as the largest CNG using country.

2. Crude Oli.

3.Coal.

4.Barte.

5.Gypsum.

6.Limestome.

7.Rock Salt.

8.Magnetite.

             3.POWER RESOURCES

There are various sources which geberate power. They, in Brief are: Coal, Oil, Gas, waterfall or River Currents, Nuclear, Solar, Biogas, Wind, Manpower and Animal

ELECTRICITY GENERATION

The total installed capacity of electricity generation stood 20681 mw in March,2010 compared with 2019 MW in March 2009. The share of hydel is 6555 MW (32%) and thermal is 14126 MW (68%) out of 14126 MW of Thermal Power, the share of different agencies involvement are as under.

Wapda                              = 4829 MW

Rental Power Plants         = 323 MW

PAEC                               = 665 MW

IPPS                                 = 8309 MW

KESC                              = 1955 MW

(A) Thermal Electricity Resources:

Pakistan has a sufficient large base of coal. Deposit over 175 billion tonnes have been discovered in Thar deserts of sind. The total coal resources are estinated at 184 billions tonnes. As  such the prospect of coal to be used in the iron and steel industry and for generating electricity are quite bright.

Conclusion

We have examined the various of energy and availability in Pakistan . We in the long run shall have to bank upon on hydel and solar energy for meeting the energy crises. The world scientist are of the view that the world is not facing a crises of energy but a crises of technology. The oil which is consumed in the engines uses only 17% of the energy potential and 83% of it is burnt as waste. Same s the case with nuclear reactor  which exploits and harnesses 1% of the energy produced by uranium. The Scientist of the world now hall have to develop the technology which uses 100% of the energy potential of oil.