In the dark on March 23

While the rest of the country shone in green soon after sunset on March 23^rd, parts of Karachi’s district south went black. K-Electric claimed that a minor fault was responsible for a widespread power outage in several of the city’s towns. The irony was lost upon no one. As dancing fountains attracted hundreds of bedazzled viewers with flashing lights and wonderment about the gallons of water used, households longed to be illuminated. For Karachi, the colour black is an accurate representation of the countless woes the city’s residents face. Power generation and distribution regularly shut operations down, causing great disturbance and K-Electric, although having streamlined its customer complaints department over the years, still requires improvements in its rate of response and quality of work, among other areas.

This time, K-Electric attributed the blackout to a minor fault. The power supplier could have provided more details to allay consumers’ concerns as to why their power was disturbed, especially on a day when families gathered to celebrate their patriotism and nationalism. Customers have a right to such information and transparency should be the standard practice, especially when they pay high tariffs that only face upward trends in prices.

In the 21^st century, humans should not have to fret over availability of basic necessities. Power outages in Karachi have resulted in unnecessary deaths of patients due to life support being shut off. There are also obvious security concerns when streetlights are turned off or when elderly persons move about a house in the dark. For a precarious city like Karachi, with its large population, continuous power supply is a requirement. Simultaneously, the city is also the financial hub of the country and has suffered losses worth billions of rupees in terms of trade in the last decade due to shutdowns of various kinds. Nepra should ascertain that K-Electric works harder to provide uninterrupted power supply to the Karachi residents so that no unnecessary loss to life or the economy occurs.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2018.

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