City life smarts from nagging power, gas, water crises ; Power outages every few minutes in some areas
Wildcat bus strike adds to public woes
Dhaka, Mar 9 (UNB)-Power outages every few minutes in some areas Tuesday disrupted livelihood while severe gas and water crises added to the woes of public life in the greater Dhaka area, even before the start of the peak summer.
Meanwhile, a wildcat strike by the operators of premium bus service on the city routes put thousands of commuters into abject misery. Over 2,500 buses run on ticket system came to a sudden halt after toll collectors of a transport workers’ trade union assaulted and wounded one bus owner at Mirpur earlier in the day.
Experts in the utility services apprehend that when the prime summer will start in April-May period, the three-pronged power-gas-water problem could take a turn for the worse yet.
They blamed poor performance of the utility services for the cumulative crises, apart from neglect of necessary tasks for improving the situation in these high-priority sectors by successive governments.
“No new electricity, or gas or water has been added in to the supply-line in the last one year, which makes the situation worsen,” said a former PDB Chairman, who preferred not to be named.
He observed that residents of the capital city now have to live in a situation where they could hardly enjoy half the needs of their essential utility services.
In many areas, people don’t know when they could get gas for cocking or get water for having bath or receive electricity for doing necessary work by running machines.
The government has decided to divert power from the urban to rural areas for irrigation of paddies in the dry season, but reports from many districts say villagers also suffer a lot for want of electricity.
“On-again, off-again electricity supply has become a regular phenomenon,” said a private job-holder in Shantibagh area of the city.
“After getting up in the morning, our life starts with gas and water crises…Power outage starts to be more frequent with the passage of hours the day,” said Sabera Khatun, a housewife in Bashabo area.
Afroza Hasan, who lives in Nakhalpara with her four-member family, including two children and husband, echoed the vice of Sabera.
She said that she has to cook her family’s meals at midnight when gas is available in the oven. During the rest of the time, from morning to midnight, no gas is found in the oven.
“When I cook at midnight, my husband has to be busy collecting water from WASA line and preserving it for the rest of the time to use,” she added.
These are not the stories of the two women only. Almost all the women who now live in the city have similar stories to tell as most of the city areas are more or less affected by the gas, water and power crises.
Mohammad Aziz Khan, Managing Director of Titas Gas Company, which is responsible for greater Dhaka and adjoining areas, admitted the current severe crisis of gas. He said Titas now receives about 1,450 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) against a demand for about 1,700 MMCFD.
But many believe that the actual demand is greater than what is officially admitted, because demand of only those areas which are covered by gas pipelines is officially counted.
But there are so many areas where people have been waiting for gas supply after they had applied for connections, but Titas has taken a long time showing the excuse of gas shortage. These areas are not coming into the demand-account, said a former Titas official.
Aziz Khan informed that Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Nakhalpara, Malibagh, Moghbazar, Bashabo, Rampura and Banasri in the city are the most crisis-ridden areas while Rupganj, Narayanganj and Fatullah are on top of the list outside the city.
He informed that about 30-kilometre new pipelines are being installed in different areas in the city to ease the gas crisis.
Like the gas crisis, water scarcity is also causing great sufferings to the city residents. Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) could hardly meet 60 percent of the demand.
The city’s water demand is about 2100 million litres per day while the WASA supplies about 1500 million litres.
Day by day, the frequent power outage is going from bad to worse as peak summer is nearing. According to Dhaka Power Distribution Company Ltd (DPDC), which controls about 70 percent of the capital city, most of the areas now have to face about minimum six hours of load shedding as the supply-side could hardly meet 60-70 percent of the total demand.
“We’re now receiving about 650 MW against a demand for 950 in DPDC area,” said DPDC Managing Director Ataul Masud.
He noted that the extent of load shedding increased in recent days because of the government’s support to agriculture. “When irrigation season is over, the situation might improve,” he said.
He said the greater Dhaka’s demand is about 2,200 MW while it receives about 1,300-MW electricity. The demand will be rising by about 8 percent in the peak summer.
About the frequent outages, he noted that beyond the planned load shedding, sometimes frequent power outage takes place when frequency drops due to the overload in the feeder lines.
The CNG-refueling stations have been the worst victim of the gas and power crisis as a huge number of stations have to shut down for more than 12 hours a day.
“We have to keep our machines off for six hours for power outage and again six hours for drop in gas pressure,” Abdullah Al Mamun, Finance Secretary of the Bangladesh CNG Association, told UNB staff-writer Sadrul Hasan.
He said Dhaka city and adjoining areas have about 300 CNG stations. But most of the stations receive gas supply in 5-8 PSI instead of the standard pressure of level 15 PSI.
Meanwhile, a wildcat strike by the operators of premium bus service on the city routes put thousands of commuters into abject misery. Over 2,500 buses run on ticket system came to a sudden halt after toll collectors of a transport workers’ trade union assaulted and wounded one bus owner at Mirpur earlier in the day.
Experts in the utility services apprehend that when the prime summer will start in April-May period, the three-pronged power-gas-water problem could take a turn for the worse yet.
They blamed poor performance of the utility services for the cumulative crises, apart from neglect of necessary tasks for improving the situation in these high-priority sectors by successive governments.
“No new electricity, or gas or water has been added in to the supply-line in the last one year, which makes the situation worsen,” said a former PDB Chairman, who preferred not to be named.
He observed that residents of the capital city now have to live in a situation where they could hardly enjoy half the needs of their essential utility services.
In many areas, people don’t know when they could get gas for cocking or get water for having bath or receive electricity for doing necessary work by running machines.
The government has decided to divert power from the urban to rural areas for irrigation of paddies in the dry season, but reports from many districts say villagers also suffer a lot for want of electricity.
“On-again, off-again electricity supply has become a regular phenomenon,” said a private job-holder in Shantibagh area of the city.
“After getting up in the morning, our life starts with gas and water crises…Power outage starts to be more frequent with the passage of hours the day,” said Sabera Khatun, a housewife in Bashabo area.
Afroza Hasan, who lives in Nakhalpara with her four-member family, including two children and husband, echoed the vice of Sabera.
She said that she has to cook her family’s meals at midnight when gas is available in the oven. During the rest of the time, from morning to midnight, no gas is found in the oven.
“When I cook at midnight, my husband has to be busy collecting water from WASA line and preserving it for the rest of the time to use,” she added.
These are not the stories of the two women only. Almost all the women who now live in the city have similar stories to tell as most of the city areas are more or less affected by the gas, water and power crises.
Mohammad Aziz Khan, Managing Director of Titas Gas Company, which is responsible for greater Dhaka and adjoining areas, admitted the current severe crisis of gas. He said Titas now receives about 1,450 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) against a demand for about 1,700 MMCFD.
But many believe that the actual demand is greater than what is officially admitted, because demand of only those areas which are covered by gas pipelines is officially counted.
But there are so many areas where people have been waiting for gas supply after they had applied for connections, but Titas has taken a long time showing the excuse of gas shortage. These areas are not coming into the demand-account, said a former Titas official.
Aziz Khan informed that Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Nakhalpara, Malibagh, Moghbazar, Bashabo, Rampura and Banasri in the city are the most crisis-ridden areas while Rupganj, Narayanganj and Fatullah are on top of the list outside the city.
He informed that about 30-kilometre new pipelines are being installed in different areas in the city to ease the gas crisis.
Like the gas crisis, water scarcity is also causing great sufferings to the city residents. Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) could hardly meet 60 percent of the demand.
The city’s water demand is about 2100 million litres per day while the WASA supplies about 1500 million litres.
Day by day, the frequent power outage is going from bad to worse as peak summer is nearing. According to Dhaka Power Distribution Company Ltd (DPDC), which controls about 70 percent of the capital city, most of the areas now have to face about minimum six hours of load shedding as the supply-side could hardly meet 60-70 percent of the total demand.
“We’re now receiving about 650 MW against a demand for 950 in DPDC area,” said DPDC Managing Director Ataul Masud.
He noted that the extent of load shedding increased in recent days because of the government’s support to agriculture. “When irrigation season is over, the situation might improve,” he said.
He said the greater Dhaka’s demand is about 2,200 MW while it receives about 1,300-MW electricity. The demand will be rising by about 8 percent in the peak summer.
About the frequent outages, he noted that beyond the planned load shedding, sometimes frequent power outage takes place when frequency drops due to the overload in the feeder lines.
The CNG-refueling stations have been the worst victim of the gas and power crisis as a huge number of stations have to shut down for more than 12 hours a day.
“We have to keep our machines off for six hours for power outage and again six hours for drop in gas pressure,” Abdullah Al Mamun, Finance Secretary of the Bangladesh CNG Association, told UNB staff-writer Sadrul Hasan.
He said Dhaka city and adjoining areas have about 300 CNG stations. But most of the stations receive gas supply in 5-8 PSI instead of the standard pressure of level 15 PSI.
Comments
No Comments on this News
