Officials said a growing demand gap worsened the crisis at the approach of summer, as the existing utility infrastructure can meet 60 per cent of the capital's power demand, 80 per cent of its water need and some three-fourths of gas requirement."Large parts of the city don't have gas, water and power supply two-thirds of a day," said a Dhaka City Corporation official.
A massive shortfall of gas first triggered the crisis, with hundreds of thousands of cooking burners becoming the first victim followed by power generation and water supply."Gas crisis has sharply cut down power output in state-owned plants. As a result, the city gets only 60 per cent of its actual electricity demand," said a power official."The woes have been compounded with the rising of temperature to nearly 40 degree celsius midway through this month and diversion of power to the rural areas for boro paddy farming," he said.
Everyday since early this month, the Power Development Board has been diverting at least 1,000 megawatt of power -- or one-fourth of the country's total generation -- to villages to operate pumps for irrigating farmland.Rising temeperature also spiked use of fans and air coolers, which guzzle more power than any other electronic or electric appliances.
Power crisis coupled with scorching sun also brought the city's water supply infrastucture down to its knee, shutting down hundreds of thousands of household pumps better parts of the day.
Dhaka Wasa, which supplies running water to the residents, said power crisis has also cut lifting of underground water by its 546 deep pumps. "We have the daily capacity to supply 1.95 billion litres of water to the capital against a demand of 2.20 billion litres," said Taqsem A Khan, its managing director.
"But due to the power crisis we cannot ensure maximum supply," he said, adding the layer of water in underground aquifers is also going down fast, making it hard to lift water at a desired pace. He said hot summer has almost dried up rivers that supply 13 per cent of the city's water and the lack of rains means the underground aquifers, source of the rest 87 per cent water, have not been replenished.
While residents hope that rains in the coming month would ease water crisis to a great extent, they see no end to the gas crunch that worsened since last winter. "Titas officials had said poor gas pressure was due to the winter. But even in hot days, we get gas supply only in the morning and evening," said Rubina Alam, a resident of city's Jurain area.
The official said the problem of low gas pressure has now affected all parts of the sprawling metropolis . He said Titas has urged the government to shut down CNG filling stations throughout the day to offset the crisis. A gas-guzzling fertiliser factory is expected to be closed down temporarily to divert its supply to the capital, he said, adding: "It is now up to the government to make decision as both are tricky issues."
Petrobangla supplies more than 1,960 million cubic feet of natural gas a day against the demand of around 2,500 million cubic feet of gas. Demand is growing nearly 10 per cent annually due to a booming economy.Traffic jams, meanwhile, worsened as record number of cars and buses are hitting the capital's narrow lanes every day -- thanks largely to a rapid increase of nouveu riches in the country.
The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority said last year around 100 cars, microbuses and buses were registered in the capital every day. The government has staggered weekly holidays for shops, shopping arcades and commercial establishments after dividing the capital into seven zones. It also set different office timings for schools and offices.Dhaka Metroplitan Police has deployed more law enforcers on to the streets and demarcated the main arteries in several lanes as part of a wide ranging moves to manage traffic.
But nothing seemed to have worked amid an influx of new cars every day. Lack of mass transit system in the ever expanding city has rubbed salt to the wounds."People like us who use public transports suffer most as we have to wait in queue before a bus arrives," said Ahsan Habib, a private banker. "There is no respite even if we board a bus as we endure another round of suffering due to the jam."
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=96286
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Shortage in supply of water has heightened the sufferings of city dwellers as the persistent power and gas crises have already plagued life all over the country amid increasingly warm weather.
Frequent power outages are hampering boro cultivation, prompting the farmers to go for demonstrations to express their concerns and resentment, report New Age district correspondents. Local offices of electricity authorities came under attack.
Students, especially candidates of public examinations, across the country cannot continue their study regularly due to electricity crisis.
Production in the export-oriented garment factories has declined almost 30 per cent recently because of the crises of power and gas, said AKM Fazlul Hoque, president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
Dwellers of Dhaka city are facing nine to ten hours of power outage daily and the crisis of electricity may deepen further in the coming days, according to sources in Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd.
Admitting the water supply crisis the city, the deputy managing director of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority, Liakat Ali, said disruption in power supply affected extraction of water at all their 545 water pump stations.
'We can run only 290 water pumps during the load shedding hours with the help of generators,' he told New Age, adding that the situation would improve as they had planned to bring 120 pumps under dual connections to mitigate the people's sufferings during the summer.
Hundreds of students of Dhaka University on Sunday brought out a procession on the campus and laid a siege at the Nilkhet crossing for half an hour, demanding uninterrupted supply of electricity at the dormitories.
'Normal study of my daughter, a candidate of HSC examinations scheduled to begin on April 1, is being seriously hampered due to power cut -- nine to ten hours a day,' said Abdus Salam, a banker staying in the city's East Rajabazar area.
Farmers of Chirirbandar upazila of Dinajpur put barricade on the highway on last Thursday while farmers in Natore laid siege to the local Rural Electrification Board office and submitted a memorandum to the authorities concerned.
Farmers in Bogra, Chapainawabganj, Narsingdi, Narail and Kishoreganj too brought out processions in and submitted memoranda to the deputy commissioners demanding adequate supply of electricity during this peak season of Boro.
Dwellers of Manikanj municipality held demonstrations in the past week and demanded uninterrupted supply of utilities — water, power and gas.
The government's decision to divert 150 megawatt electricity to boro-growing areas has not solved the problem of electricity supply in the rural Bangladesh, according to reports from New Age correspondents.
The government has recently decided to impose two-hour load shedding after every two hours instead of the previous practice of one-hour load shedding to reduce the frequency of power outage in the city.
However, there are short stretches of load shedding between the two hours due to 'technical faults', meaning that the city dwellers in some cases have to face 12 hours of power outage.
Residents of Mirpur Senpara, Shewrapara, Mohammadpur, Purba Rajabazar, Khilgaon, Basabo, Jatrabari and old parts of Dhaka city are among the worst sufferers of acute water crisis coupled with electricity and gas crises.
http://www.newagebd.com/2010/mar/29/front.html
Public anger rising over enhanced load shedding
Power distributors introduce 2-hour outage every 2 hours
The severe cut in power supply was necessitated as the generation stands at 3700-3800 MW against the demand of more than 6000 MW.The power officials said they have received complaints and resentment against the new system of load shedding. "Now, many peoples are giving their negative reaction to two-hour load shedding system. Because, it creates more sufferings to them," said a top official of DPDC which controls electricity distribution in major part of the capital city. He said many people use standby generators. They now face troubles in running generators for two hours at a stretch. Many business houses are to close transactions for long two hours affecting their business, he added.
Business people are not taking the new system positively as it leads to more hazards. Bangladesh Shop Owners Association Secretary General SA Quader Kiron expressed sharp resentment. "Definitely, this is a bad decision as it is harmful to the business. This is not acceptable as people are not habituated with long two-hour load shedding."
Kiron is worried at reported government plan of complete cut in power supply in urban areas from 12 midnight to 6 am. "This will be ridiculous if really the government moves in that direction, because after whole day labour and frequent load shedding, people want a good sheep after midnight."
FBBCI vice-president Abul Quasem Ahmed said the new load shedding system might be a temporary matter. "But we want complete free from load shedding situation for the sake of our business." For the last couple of months, many areas across the country including the capital, have been facing severe load shedding as the gap between the supply and demand of electricity is widening fast with the onset of summer.
Power Secretary Abul Kalam Azad conveyed the new decision to the top officials of the distribution agencies at a meeting at the Power Division on Thursday last.Sources close to the meeting told UNB that when they were reviewing the situation Azad was summoned to the Prime Minister's Office. He was directed to introduce two-hour load shedding at every two hours instead of one-hour after every hour.
Azad returned to the meeting and asked them to follow the new directive. He however said the new system is temporary for one week to see the public reaction."If the people welcome, then it will continue for the rest of the time. But if it creates any resentment among the consumers, the decision will be reviewed," he told the officials.
The officials were also given the idea that the policy makers feel that load shedding in every alternative hour is creating a bad impression among the public.
http://www.thebangladeshtoday.com/leading%20news.htm#lead news-01
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