ISLAMABAD    -    The second international hydro­power conference will be orga­nized here in December aimed at recommending the best doable strategy to the government to en­sure maximum utilization of water resources in the country for clean and green energy generation. 

The Energy Update in collabo­ration with concerned govern­ment departments was organiz­ing the daylong event here to gather at one place all the con­cerned stakeholders relevant to the scenario of hydropower gen­eration in Pakistan, told Presi­dent National Forum for Envi­ronment and Health (NFEH), M Naeem Qureshi, to this agency. He said the theme of this year’s conference titled “sustainable dams and drains in mitigating climate change” has been spe­cially chosen in the context of the recent devastating flood emergency in Pakistan. 

The Energy Update has part­nered with the International Hydropower Association, Water and Power Development Au­thority and Private Power Infra­structure Board to organize the conference. The conference was likely to be attended by over 250 leading national and internation­al experts on hydro resources, he said. He said the conference would also be attended by rep­resentatives of the power sector regulator, government authori­ties, private sector, local banks, international donor agencies, energy companies, and prospec­tive foreign investors that were keen to invest in hydroelectric­ity to help Pakistan decrease its reliance on fossil fuels for power generation. Naeem Qureshi who is also the chairman of the orga­nizing committee of the confer­ence hoped that the recommen­dations of the conference would go a long way to suggest a clear way forward for expanding hy­droelectricity resources in the country for greater clean elec­tricity production. 

He said that maximum utili­zation of the hydro resources was key to furthering the gov­ernment energy sector policy, which stood for electricity gen­eration based on renewable and indigenous power sources while minimizing the use of fossil fuels for energy production. 

Qureshi said the development regime under the aegis of the China-Pakistan Economic Cor­ridor (CPEC) also provided an excellent opportunity to attract local and foreign investment in the hydroelectricity sector.

It is pertinent to mention here that former prime minister, Sha­hid Khaqan Abbasi, has recently performed soft launching of the 2nd International Hydropower Conference and praised the ef­forts of Energy Update to regular­ly organize conferences on differ­ent aspects of the power sector