Webinar on ‘Earth Day’
Zubair Qureshi
The United States government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is currently engaged with the Government of Pakistan over the past several decades to create clean, sustainable energy projects and activities helping to develop Pakistan’s environmental and natural resources.
These views were expressed by Don McCubbin, Director of USAID’s Energy Office, in a recent webinar by USAID on “Earth Day.”
According to Mr McCubbin, these programmes include hydroelectric projects, which not only generate renewable electricity but also play a vital role in Pakistan’s overall economy.
“Issues like climate change, water shortages and air pollution are directly linked to Earth-Day” Mr. McCubbin said adding “Pakistan is challenged to face the upcoming climate changes due to its geographical location.”
Pakistan is one of the countries where highest temperatures are recorded, said the USAID Director of Energy Office adding, people are facing water shortages and environmental issues which directly affect their lives, he added.
“To address such issues, the Pakistan and US Governments have been working on projects to generate electricity without pollution and overcome water storage.” he said. These projects are helping to produce water supplying to peoples’ homes and improving the agriculture sector.
In addition, Mr. McCubbind said in the past most part of the energy in Pakistan was generated by fossil fuels which caused pollution.
Now, the USAID-Government of Pakistan energy programmes are producing renewable energy to minimize the environmental impact and help turn Pakistan into a clean and green country.
In fact, during the 1960s and 1970s, the United States Government was one of the major contributors for the construction of Mangla and Tarbela Hydroelectric Dams, which more than doubled Pakistan’s electricity generation capacity.
McCubbin was of the view that the US had been working with the Government of Pakistan developing wind-generated energy in Sindh Province.
“We have been engaged to building hydroelectric projects in different parts of the country,” he said, adding the Tarbela Hydroelectric Power Station, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, has a power generation capacity of nearly 3,500 MW and Golen Gol Hydropower project, which was completed in 2020, has added an additional 108 MW of generation capacity to the national grid.
Both are also important examples of US-Pakistan partnership programs in the energy field.
Nadeem Habib, USAID’s Energy Project Management Specialist said technical assistance had also built the capacity of the country in the energy sector, which will benefit the population as a whole.
“Getting direct aid from any country is never sustainable, so we are supporting Pakistan in building its own capacity to implement and operationalize different projects which would be helpful for long term bases,” he said.
