Energy - IUCN

5. THE WAY AHEAD
5.1. Develop and Implement a Northern Areas
Energy Policy
To guide the future development of the energy sector in the Northern Areas, it is
recommended that a comprehensive energy policy be developed, through a
consultative process involving all the principal stakeholders. The central aims of the
policy should be to promote energy self-sufficiency for the Northern Areas through
the careful expansion of hydroelectricity, and to minimise the dependence on
fuelwood harvested from the NA's natural forests. In particular, it is suggested that
the policy:
m Promote institutional development and capacity building within NAPWD and
WAPDA;
m Introduce new financial and cost recovery mechanisms, including differential
rate structures for the sale of electricity, and the use of incentives/disincentives
to encourage desirable patterns of energy supply and use;
m Encourage private sector investment in the energy sector, as well as the active
involvement of NGOs and local communities;
m Promote the planned expansion of hydropower, and provide guidance (e.g., in
the form of criteria) on the selection of priority sites and projects;
m Emphasise the need for a strategic environmental assessment of the energy
sector as a whole, as well as environmental impact assessments of individual
projects;
m Actively promote the development and implementation of an aggressive
energy conservation programme;
m Promote an increase in the supply of cultivated fuelwood;
m Encourage the use of other renewable sources of energy, such as solar power.
These recommendations are discussed in greater detail below. To oversee the
development and implementation of the policy, an independent power board for
the Northern A reas should be constituted as a matter of priority, with
representation from all the major stakeholder groups.
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5.2. Promote Institutional Development and
Capacity Building
NAPWD is the only organization, which plans, surveys, designs, estimates, and
supervises the execution of all the development projects in the sectors of transport,
communication, physical planning housing, public health, irrigation and energy in
Northern A reas. The organization is also responsible for maintenance and
operation of all the assets built so far in the above-mentioned sectors. This
organization with its total number of only 45 qualified engineers is badly over
loaded. Actually, the present strength/number of engineers was created back in