Acute shortage of power, water supply adds to people's woes
Sunday, 7 October 2007
FHM Humayan Kabir
Acute shortage of power and water supply over the last couple of days has aggravated the miseries of people living in the capital.
Residents in some areas in the capital shared their unpleasant experience on the crises with the FE Saturday where they claimed they not only faced frequent disruption and low-voltage of power but had to pass the day without water supply also.
Admitting the water crisis, a spokesman in the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) Saturday told the FE that operation of the water pumps and water treatment plants were being affected due to frequent load-shedding and low voltage of electricity which has been causing disruption in water supply in the city over the last few days.
About the acute power shortage, sources in the Power Development Board (PDB) said they had to resort to electricity rationing due to abrupt suspension of some big power units. The low pressure of gas is also affecting the power generations adversely in the plants which are operational, they added.
The sources said the power outage could be reduced to some extent if adequate gas supply to all power plants is ensured.
The PDB sources said some big units including the 210-megawatt (MW) at Ghorasal, the 125MW at Baropukuria and two units, having a total 420MW capacity, in Raozan power plants were suspended within a span of last two weeks which caused sever power disruption in the city as well as throughout the country.
"Although the 420MW Raozan plant has resumed its operation on Saturday afternoon, this plant is not being able to generate over 250MW due to low pressure of gas," an official in the PDB said last evening quoting from the daily electricity generation report.
The official further said there are over 10 power units which were out of operation due to maintenance works for a considerable period of time.
Meanwhile, the WASA spokesman about the prevailing water crisis opined that apart from the power crisis, the unusual hot weather had increased the water consumption over the last couple of days pushing up the supply shortfall.
"The water treatment capacity in the Syedabad plant has reduced to 50 million litre daily from its original capacity of 225 million litre a day. Besides, most of the water pumps can not run four to five hours daily due to frequent load-shedding," he noted.
The spokesman said the city's total demand for water is over 2.0 billion litre a day whereas the WASA have a supply capacity of 1.7 billion litre. Moreover, the disruption to electricity, its low voltage and the unusual hot weather over the last couple of days has become reasons for reducing the water supply capacity, he opined.
Residents in some areas including Mirpur, Kolyanpur, Mohammadpur, Malibagh, Shantibagh, Jatrabari, Kamlapur and old part of the capital told the FE that they had passed half of the day without water and faced five to six hours load-shedding of electricity Saturday.
Neither they can do their daily activities in the households nor can continue production in their industrial units and commercial activities in the business places due to disruption of water and power supply simultaneously, the residents and businessmen lamented.
The manufacturers and exporters are experiencing serious production setbacks and fear that the exports in the last quarter 2007 would decline significantly.
"Power outages have severely affected the production in ready-made garments factories in and outside the capital," said a garment owner in Mirpur area.
In the capital, the demand for power has gone up to over 1700MW daily at the outset of hot weather but the power distribution authorities in the city are able to supply 1400-1500MW daily, leaving a shortfall of 200-300MW, sources in the PDB said.
The PDB sources added all the operative power units in the country generated around 3550MW Saturday evening against the total demand for more than 4500MW.
When asked about the nagging power situation, Energy Adviser Tapan Chowdhury after a discussion organised by the North Bengal Journalists Forum Saturday told reporters that they were trying to improve the situation.
Following some government measures to augment the generation, the power situation would be improved by end of this year, he stated adding, another 300MW of power would be added to the national grid by April.
Acute shortage of power and water supply over the last couple of days has aggravated the miseries of people living in the capital.
Residents in some areas in the capital shared their unpleasant experience on the crises with the FE Saturday where they claimed they not only faced frequent disruption and low-voltage of power but had to pass the day without water supply also.
Admitting the water crisis, a spokesman in the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) Saturday told the FE that operation of the water pumps and water treatment plants were being affected due to frequent load-shedding and low voltage of electricity which has been causing disruption in water supply in the city over the last few days.
About the acute power shortage, sources in the Power Development Board (PDB) said they had to resort to electricity rationing due to abrupt suspension of some big power units. The low pressure of gas is also affecting the power generations adversely in the plants which are operational, they added.
The sources said the power outage could be reduced to some extent if adequate gas supply to all power plants is ensured.
The PDB sources said some big units including the 210-megawatt (MW) at Ghorasal, the 125MW at Baropukuria and two units, having a total 420MW capacity, in Raozan power plants were suspended within a span of last two weeks which caused sever power disruption in the city as well as throughout the country.
"Although the 420MW Raozan plant has resumed its operation on Saturday afternoon, this plant is not being able to generate over 250MW due to low pressure of gas," an official in the PDB said last evening quoting from the daily electricity generation report.
The official further said there are over 10 power units which were out of operation due to maintenance works for a considerable period of time.
Meanwhile, the WASA spokesman about the prevailing water crisis opined that apart from the power crisis, the unusual hot weather had increased the water consumption over the last couple of days pushing up the supply shortfall.
"The water treatment capacity in the Syedabad plant has reduced to 50 million litre daily from its original capacity of 225 million litre a day. Besides, most of the water pumps can not run four to five hours daily due to frequent load-shedding," he noted.
The spokesman said the city's total demand for water is over 2.0 billion litre a day whereas the WASA have a supply capacity of 1.7 billion litre. Moreover, the disruption to electricity, its low voltage and the unusual hot weather over the last couple of days has become reasons for reducing the water supply capacity, he opined.
Residents in some areas including Mirpur, Kolyanpur, Mohammadpur, Malibagh, Shantibagh, Jatrabari, Kamlapur and old part of the capital told the FE that they had passed half of the day without water and faced five to six hours load-shedding of electricity Saturday.
Neither they can do their daily activities in the households nor can continue production in their industrial units and commercial activities in the business places due to disruption of water and power supply simultaneously, the residents and businessmen lamented.
The manufacturers and exporters are experiencing serious production setbacks and fear that the exports in the last quarter 2007 would decline significantly.
"Power outages have severely affected the production in ready-made garments factories in and outside the capital," said a garment owner in Mirpur area.
In the capital, the demand for power has gone up to over 1700MW daily at the outset of hot weather but the power distribution authorities in the city are able to supply 1400-1500MW daily, leaving a shortfall of 200-300MW, sources in the PDB said.
The PDB sources added all the operative power units in the country generated around 3550MW Saturday evening against the total demand for more than 4500MW.
When asked about the nagging power situation, Energy Adviser Tapan Chowdhury after a discussion organised by the North Bengal Journalists Forum Saturday told reporters that they were trying to improve the situation.
Following some government measures to augment the generation, the power situation would be improved by end of this year, he stated adding, another 300MW of power would be added to the national grid by April.