Jamshoro trips, Karachi fumbles

Latest power breakdown leaves citizens disheveled, hungry and angry

KARACHI:

More than 90 per cent of Karachi was plunged into darkness at dawn on Friday, resulting in a damaged water pipeline at Dhabeji and overall tardiness of people at offices and schools.

At around 5:45am, more than 60 of K-Electric's grids stalled due to the tripping of their 500KV extra-high-tension wires, claimed the utility's spokesperson. "Entire Karachi, including the adjoining areas, was affected," said the spokesperson, adding that it takes time to restore electricity once the system has tripped.

Hours-long power breakdown cripples Karachi



The third major outage of the country's dilapidated electricity grid within a month forced shops, hospitals and businesses to turn to back-up generators as the lights went out, including those at the Sindh Assembly.

The loss of power offended citizens' sartorial sensibilities and left them hungry. "I wish I had ironed my clothes at night but I am not alone in the bank today with ugly, un-ironed clothes," said Yousuf, a banker.

Maliha, a mother of two, also faced serious issues with the sudden power breakdown. "I could not iron my children's uniforms and my electric oven stopped working while I was preparing their breakfast," she lamented. Ambreen's children were late to school due to the power breakdown.

Worshipers also faced difficulties in preparing for Friday prayers. "I fear we will face problems during the Friday sermon as the loud speakers will not be able to work on the generator," fretted Abdur Raheem, the prayer leader of a mosque in Federal B Area.

The head of Happy Home School O-Level campus, Farah Imam, told The Express Tribune added that the school generator "gave up" and could not provide electricity for such a long period of time.



Annoyed citizens also took to Twitter to express their disgruntlement with K-Electric using the hashtag, KarachiBlackOut, many referring to the power-less period as "the stone age". Residents used humour to lash back at the utility company, one user claiming the majority of staff at his office wore jeans instead of more formal attire since they do not need to be ironed.

No power, no water

A 72-inch diameter water pipeline burst after the power failure at the water pumping station at Dhabeji, which resulted in the suspension of water supply throughout the city. Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) spokesperson Nazir Mateen told The Express Tribune that the power failure created back pressure on the water pipeline, which caused great damage to it. He added that their teams reached the spot and they expect that the repair work will be completed by Friday night.

Mateen confirmed that the power supply from Dhabeji Pumping station was resumed at 10:30am and that at around 12:30 pm water was being supplied as per routine, except via the damaged line.

The Dhabeji Pumping Station has a total of 11 lines, varying from 72- to 84-inch in diameter. Only one of these was damaged, he added.

Priority list

"We prioritise strategic locations, such as the KWSB installations, the airport and hospitals, when resuming power supply," said the K-Electric spokesperson, adding that power supply had been restored across the city by 4pm.



Contrary to his claim, residents complained of interrupted power supply since noon. A resident of Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Sanjida Azam, told The Express Tribune that power was restored at around 3pm but was interrupted three times after that. Another resident claimed that after the power restoration, they experienced power break downs every half-an-hour.

Contrary to speculation of a second power outage on Friday evening, the power utility representatives took to Twitter to claim any subsequent power failures were due to "technical faults" and that teams were working to fix the issues.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th,  2016.