President calls for nationwide energy conservation plan

President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday called for launching a consensus-based nationwide, comprehensive and all-encompassing electricity, gas and water conservation strategies to conserve precious national resources and divert them for the welfare and prosperity of the people.

The president, during a meeting on energy conservation at Aiwan-e-Sadr, underscored that a comprehensive policy and programme should be prepared after consulting all stakeholders, including the provinces, besides launching an awareness campaign across the country to conserve electricity, gas, and water.

The president said that there is a need to generate out-of-the-box ideas, absorb creative ideas, benchmark best practices around the world, develop policies and strategies around them and ensure their implementation on a timeline basis to achieve the desired objectives in the shortest possible timeframe.

“Pakistan can make rapid and accelerated progress in all sectors provided it enhanced and accelerated the implementation speed on initiatives of national importance, following a strict timeline while maintaining quality and ensuring desired outputs and outcomes”, he observed.

President Alvi maintained that the Islamic teachings stressed the conservation of resources even if there was an abundance of them. He said the teachings of Quran and Hadith stressed the conservation of water even if one was performing ablution on the riverside.

He called for adopting the cherished Islamic values to change our attitudes and behaviours while using precious resources which included water, gas and electricity.

The president added “a consensus should also be built among all the stakeholders including traders, businesspersons and representatives of the chambers of commerce and industries for determining the timing and procedure of closing the marketplaces, and businesses, especially in the evenings for energy conservation.”

The president appreciated the idea to manage the cool load during summers which could be reduced substantially from approximately 12700 MW by eliminating the use of inefficient fans of 120 W and replacing them with efficient fans of 60-80 W.

He urged that a comprehensive building plan for all houses, public places and buildings should be prepared which should compulsorily include the design and selection of construction materials to make all buildings energy efficient, and cost-effective.

President Alvi emphasised the need for carrying out the electricity, gas and water audits of all public sector buildings across the country to identify energy and water-inefficient appliances, switches and habits, and later put in place a mechanism to replace all such appliances with efficient ones to preserve and conserve energy and water.

He underlined the importance of developing a comprehensive awareness campaign on the conservation of electricity, gas, and water, in consensus with all the stakeholders through conventional and social media products such as morning shows, programmes, dramas, sit-ins, talk shows etc, as well as mobile caller tones through PTA by all the cellular companies.

President expressed that this would create mass awareness and education among the general masses to preserve and conserve energy. The President also highlighted the importance of Ulemas and mosques in the awareness campaign saying that Wafaq ul Madaris should also be engaged in creating awareness through mosques and sermons.

The president quoted an example of the Green Presidency Initiative, which comprised of two parallel activities – Energy Conservation and Shifting towards Green Energy, which he said has reduced its energy consumption load by 42.5%, whereas the entire energy needs of the Presidency are met by its in-house 1MW Solar Power Plant installed through Corporation Social Responsibility Scheme without incurring any cost to the national exchequer. This, he said, has saved Rs. 152.3 million since its installation.

In addition, the President’s House on the energy audit recommendations has replaced all inefficient appliances through the CSR programme and observed strict energy conservation practices. This model, he proposed, should be replicated in other public sector buildings wherever possible.

Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Minister for Defence, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Minister for Economic Affairs, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Minister for Industries and Production, Syed Murtaza Mahmud, Federal Minister for Energy, Engr. Khurram Dastgir Khan, Minister of State for Petroleum, Musadik Masood Malik, and senior officials of the Power, Finance, and Industries Division, and National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (NEECA), attended the meeting.