In his inaugural address to the National Assembly a year ago, an optimistic prime minister promised to find a solution to the power crisis in the first 100 days of his rule. Later, a slightly more cautious minister for power set his government a new deadline — December 2009 — for ending loadshedding in the country. All this while, officials have been busy trying to temper public expectations on this count. There have been some efforts but matters haven’t improved.
In fact, the cumulative effects of an industry and a people denied energy season after season raises fears of even angrier reactions than have been witnessed so far.
The people are once again being told to prepare for eight hours of power cuts starting today as electricity production declines and demand rises.
People will be forced to turn off lights, air-conditioners and other devices to make up for the difference of 3,500 megawatts in generation and its demand. The poor, who consume only a fraction of the total electricity production, will suffer the most because they cannot afford generators as substitutes. Just as in the past, the economy will suffer huge losses.
Industrial production is feared to dip further and trade will slow down significantly as a result of long blackouts. Many factories have been shut down during the last one year and hundreds of jobs lost because the owners did not get electricity to run their plants. Others were forced to cut production.
The government’s attempts to fix the problem have been largely unsuccessful. Like the people, officials too seem to be groping in the dark for a solution to the persisting power shortages.
True, the crisis stems from the policymakers’ failure to invest public money or attract private investment for setting up new power plants and dams for hydroelectric power generation in the last 10 years or more.
But the crisis cannot be allowed to linger any longer. People want a quick solution to the issue. That, experts say, lies in harnessing wind and solar power, which is relatively cheaper and faster to do than building thermal plants and dams.
1 comment:
We went through the same thing in 2008 They had load shedding everyday and even told us the times they will do it . The people with money brought generators and UPS but after a while some transformers blew up and criminals stole cable so they had to suspend loadshedding.but they demanded a 53% increase in tarrifs and only got 12% Since then there has been none but lets see what happens in winter
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