Load shedding cripples life in Khulna city

Tushar Kanti Das lives on the ground floor of a three-storey house on Sabuj Sangh Math Road of ward-6 in Khulna city.  After a long day of work as a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company, he would have to suffer the woes of load shedding as soon as he returned home for the past week.

Along with his daughter Tuli Das and his wife, Tushar would be confined to these rooms, where the windows and doors would have to remain closed even amidst the terrible heat due to mosquitoes.

As soon as the evening would start, electricity would not be available at every one hour interval.

They suffered so much, that they even kept a record of how much load shedding has taken place in the last few days.

Electricity went out six times in this area of ward-6 on Tuesday. There was no electricity for around five hours -- from 2:00pm to 3:15pm; 4:30pm to 5:15pm; again from 6:30pm to 7:30pm; 9:10pm to 9:42pm; 11:00pm to 11:40pm, and from 1:10am to 1:23am.

"I returned home around 11:00pm and still faced load shedding almost every day in last week. One of the days, I noticed my daughter was sweating and exhausted. Then I had to take her to the roof to find some relief,'' said Tushar.

"I do not have any capacity to buy IPS or other power-saving tools. So I am trying to solve the problem by buying a charger," he added.

Most of the families living in Khulna city have been facing power shortage problems similar to Tushar's family.

According to West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited (WZPDCL), the electricity demand in Khulna city was 196MW on Tuesday April 3. In contrast, 160MW of electricity was supplied.

Seeking anonymity, one of the chief engineers said there is a shortage of 35-40MW of electricity for Khulna city over the last couple of days. As a result, load shedding is taking place in various areas consistently.

"Over time, the demand for electricity is increasing daily, as our consumption is rapidly increasing. However, supply is still low," he added.

WZPDCL is responsible for electricity distribution in 21 district towns, 37 municipalities, two city corporations and 21 upazilas in the southern part of the country. Other districts are also facing load shedding similar to Khulna.

According to the control room of WZPDCL, their total electricity demand was 680MW on Tuesday afternoon and 675MW on Wednesday.

However, the authority declined to provide load shedding data against the supply and demand ration.

Md Amirul Azad, senior Met officer at Khulna Met Office, said yesterday the temperature was 38 degrees Celsius in Khulna.

Export-oriented fisheries sector at a loss:

S Humayun Kabir, director of Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA), said being a perishable product, prawns have to be stored at the right temperature. Besides, each step of shrimp processing requires electricity.

He said, "Electrical aerator [air carrier] has to be used at all times to maintain the oxygen level in the water of the shrimp enclosure. If there is load shedding, the production of shrimps decreases and sometimes even all the fish die."

"A factory requires 18 hours of uninterrupted electricity to freeze ice. Due to load shedding, generators have to be used to make ice. As a result, the price of ice has increased a lot," he added.

According to BFFEA, there are 105 frozen food processing plants in Bangladesh. Out of this, 80 percent of shrimps are processed in various factories in Khulna.