HYDERABAD:
The prolonged power outages in the five divisions of Sindh outside Karachi have finally moved the Sindh government, with the provincial energy minister writing to the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) and Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) - which power 23 districts in Sindh - on Friday.
Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh decried the fact that up to 16 hours of load-shedding were occurring in some districts, with daily unscheduled power cuts in Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Sukkur and Larkana divisions. “Faulty transformers take days for repair or replacement,” he stated. “The load-shedding is also affecting patients in the hospitals, with even surgeries delayed.”
The minister demanded that the power companies repair or replace malfunctioning transformers in the province, and give priority to the feeders powering hospitals, water supply and drainage pumping stations.
He claimed the Sindh government had regularly been paying the electricity bills for government hospitals and the pumping stations, but despite this, the matter of power outages and defective transformers continued to plague them.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 19th, 2020.
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