Tom Hussain – The National
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GTZ, the German development agency, has identified sites on small and large rivers with the potential to generate a staggering 40,000 megawatts of electricity, or about double the power shortfall that Pakistan is predicted to suffer by 2020, said Karim Khan, an engineer for the Northern Areas’ water and power department.
“If the government develops that potential, it won’t need to run emissions emitting thermal and coal plants, or nuclear plants that pose a danger to the public,” said Mr Khan, who supervises power plants throughout the Hunza Valley.
However, potential is one thing, realising it is quite another. The area’s largest hydroelectric project to date, an 18-megawatt project built by China in the Naltar Valley neighbouring Gilgit, the regional capital, was commissioned in May.
At the other end of the scale, residents of Ahmedabad village in Hunza Valley worked with the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, an NGO, to establish a 350-kilowatt hydroelectric unit in April, although the turbine they manufactured locally with minimal technology has kept output down to less than half of envisioned capacity.
Ismailimail 