Unending woes: Swat bearing the brunt of electricity, gas shortage

Locals question government’s sincerity in resolving the crisis.

SWAT:

As if natural disasters and militancy were not enough, Swat now has a host of new issues to worry about, dominated by the unavailability of electricity and gas.

Over 15 hours of unannounced power outages on Wednesday paralysed life in the mountainous city, instigating locals to mock the government and its ability to manage the affairs of the administrative district.

“Gas and electricity load shedding has become a constant misery for us. We are going hungry,” said Zainul Abidin, a renowned political and social activist. He said prolonged electricity breakdown has caused tremendous losses to the local industry and has resulted in lay-offs. “We have been hit by disasters twice.” When will our issues be resolved? he questioned.

Murad Ali Khan, a youth activist from Mingora, said, “The poor have lost confidence in the present government; the ruling class is plundering all the resources and the public is left suffering.”

As the Secondary School Certificate (Matric) board examinations are underway, students are also being affected by the prolonged and unannounced electricity loadshedding.

“It is not fair to suspend electricity during study hours,” said Ijazullah Khan, a grade 10 student who is taking his matric exams. “We want to study late in the night to prepare ourselves for the exams but unannounced power outages disturb our schedule.”

Talking to The Express Tribune, a silk mill worker, Bakht-e-Rawan said his livelihood has been severely affected by power outages. “Our work is directly affected by interruptions in power supply as silk machines run on electricity.”

He said he used to earn around Rs500 a day for working 12 hours, but due to the prolonged load shedding he was able to make only Rs600 last week.

“How am I supposed to manage my household on such a small amount?” It is barely enough to feed my family two meals a day, he added.

Another industrial worker, Alamgir said workers have staged a number of rallies and protests, but neither the government nor the Water and Power Development Authority has taken any notice.

“The government is determined to finish us off financially.” If the gas and power issues are not resolved urgently, we will be forced to resort to extreme steps, he warned.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2012.