ISLAMABAD: The second International Hydropower Conference will be organized in Islamabad in December with an aim to recommend the best doable strategy to the government to ensure maximum utilization of water resources in the country for clean power generation.

The Energy Update is organizing the daylong event at a hotel in the federal capital to gather at once place all the concerned stakeholders relevant to the scenario of hydropower generation in Pakistan. The theme of this year’s conference “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 that is likely to be attended by over 250 leading national and international experts on hydro resources.

The conference will 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 are keen to invest in hydroelectricity to help Pakistan decrease its reliance on fossil fuels for power generation.

Former Prime Minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, recently performed soft launching of the 2nd International Hydropower Conference at an event at Islamabad Club and praised the efforts of Energy Update to regularly organize conferences on different aspects of the power sector.

On this occasion Chairman NEPRA Tauseef H. Farooqi, Managing Director PPIB Shah Jehan Mirza, Director General Hydro PPIB Dr. Munawwar Iqbal, Karot Power’s Advisor NA Zuberi, Koak Power CEO Sultan Ahmed and others also attended the event.

Naeem Qureshi, 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 CPEC also provided an excellent opportunity to attract local and foreign investment in the hydroelectricity sector.