KARACHI:
For the citizens of Karachi, it’s time now to brave the rising mercury levels — and with that the power outages. People in many parts of the city, according to media reports, have been suffering from interruptions in power supply both in the day and at night, causing them great agony and affecting their daily routine. Some of the localities in the city have been suffering from marathon blackout sessions. The situation was so serious in Maymar Housing Society, located on the outskirts of Karachi, that the residents took to streets in protest. They lit bonfire and raised slogans against K-Electric as well as the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board because no power means no water too.
It goes without saying that the interruptions in power supply are also affecting businesses in the city. The rise in demand of power due to rising temperatures is thought to have been causing frequent and prolonged power outages. Taking stock of the situation, Energy Minister Hammad Azhar has assured that the federal government will provide an additional 200 megawatts of electricity to K-Electric on top of the 350 megawatts already being provided.
The K-Electric, however, says there is no unannounced load-shedding in the city rather the system faults that have been causing power failures. Even if that is the case, it is the responsibility of K-Electric to fix the issue at the earliest and prevent such things from happening in the future. A city like Karachi, which contributes immensely to the total revenues of the country, needs an efficient and foolproof power supply system. It is about time that the relevant authorities paid serious attention to this.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 7th, 2021.
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