Hydropower exploitation for Pakistan's sustainable development: A SWOT analysis considering current situation, challenges, and prospects

Abstract Pakistan has not fully harnessed the capacity of its vast hydropower potential for electricity generation. It depends on imported and local fossil fuels to fulfill its energy demands, which consume a significant portion of the country's economy. Hydropower can provide an economical, renewable, clean, and secure source of energy for the country. The potential benefits and prospects of hydropower for Pakistan require a comprehensive review of the hydropower sector to investigate the true resource potential and its development, considering the associated pros and cons. Therefore, the review work examines hydropower utilization in Pakistan using SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. The strengths include an enormous resource potential, sustainable energy source, and a well-established technology; the weaknesses include substantial capital investment, time-taking project completion, degradation of the reservoir over time, and the effect of seasonal variations. The opportunities include increasing demand-supply gap, 93% unexploited potential, water storage dams, energy security, rising concerns for climate change; the threats include economic and political instability, dependence on foreign investment and fossil fuels, transboundary location of water resources, irregular and vague energy policies. The SWOT analysis shows that despite having severe issues, hydropower is still a priority source of secure, cheap, and clean energy for the country with abundant resource potential and a properly managed technology.