Heat, power outages paralyse life in twin cities
18 June, 2012
ISLAMABAD: The residents of the twin cities have been witnessing unprecedented scheduled and unscheduled power outages that have multiplied their miseries. Routine life in the twin cities and adjoining areas has been badly disturbed due to prolonged power outages, which aggravated water shortage as mercury had gone up to 43 degrees Celsius. Moreover, in the rural areas affiliated with the federal capital, the duration of load shedding has gone up to 18 hours a day, depriving people of drinking water as motors and tube-wells could not work. Similarly, hide and seek of power supply is not different in Rawalpindi, where load shedding duration has gone up to 18 hours, causing a severe water shortage. Residents of the twin cities told INP that sleepless nights had become their fate owing to prolonged power cuts. They said that the government had done nothing to cope with the situation despite repeated directives by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to stop unannounced load shedding. Muhammad Tariq, a resident of G-9/4, said that three to four hours of continuous load shedding was being experienced for the first time in many sectors of the capital. "People from other parts of the country believe that big cities, particularly Islamabad, face short load shedding duration as compared to other parts, but this is not true, as we are also facing the same situation," said Dost Muhammad of Bhara Kahu. The people said that hours-long power suspensions had made all the alternate methods of electricity, like the UPS and generators, useless. Besides, electric appliances are not working properly and some people complained that their appliances had burnt out due to tripping. Moreover, unprecedented load shedding has sparked violent protests in different parts of the twin cities for the first time. During such protests, people burnt down public property as well as private vehicles. IESCO official told INP that the use of air conditioners, fans, fridges, deep freezers, water dispensers and coolers had increased in the summer, which was the main reason for the shortfall, as production of electricity was insufficient to meet the demand. End.
|
