Swat’s power crisis

It appears that for the people of the Swat Valley, crisis never ends. This time, it has come not in the form of militancy or floods, but loadshedding that lasts up to 20 hours a day. This also means severe water shortage. The cost and the loss of time can only be imagined. So, too, can the decline in productivity at workshops, factories and other commercial enterprises. While there had been hope of a tourism revival in Swat this year, taking forward the trend seen last summer, hotel and guesthouse owners know it is unrealistic to expect holiday-makers to brave accommodation with no power and no running water. A major source of revenue in Swat is being badly affected — but it seems no one cares.

Local politicians are demanding that the government act. They claim that the crisis is ‘created’ and could easily be tackled if there was a will to do so. Debate about the nature of the power crisis has raged everywhere, with many smaller towns especially badly affected. But the situation in Swat is all the more critical, given the need to bring about an economic revival in the area, help people scramble back on to their feet and, by doing so, ward off a return of the militants who use government incompetence as a means to gain support.

Lately, there has been more and more talk of developing alternative means of power to overcome the critical energy situation we face. There have been suggestions that natural waterfalls in rivers could be used to generate power. This would appear to be a practicable solution for an area such as Swat, where there is a river running through the Valley. Other solutions, too, need to be thought of and the voices from a struggling region heard, before a still grimmer summer of suffering is imposed on people who have already suffered greatly over the past few years as a result of many different factors.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2011.