KP's Buner residents get electricity for meagre Rs200/month

BUNER: In what sounds like a distant fantasy, residents of a small village Brashmanal in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Buner district pay only Rs200/month and get uninterrupted electricity.

While the remote village in Pakistan's northern areas does not have the basic facilities of life, its 30-year-old resident, Shaukat Hussain, has built a hydroelectric power plant with Rs100,000, providing electricity at merely Rs200/month.

Locals said that — unlike the rest of the country — they are not even aware of the increase in electricity prices as their village experiences neither power cuts nor power rate hikes.

According to the local residents, they still do not get any power from the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda).

"Our village is backward and remote, but the darkness that was in it has been replaced by lights. We pay a monthly bill of Rs200 and are provided electricity. We are very happy with it," one resident said.

According to Hussain, there are about 100 houses in the village.

"We charge Rs200/month from each house, we repair the machinery with this money," he said.

He said that they worked to provide relief to people because they cannot afford. "However, we cannot to give free electricity because the cost of spare parts is high."

He added: "People here benefit greatly from the electricity generated by this hydroelectric plant, but the flour created in this mill is also excellent."

Hussain further added that if the government provided assistance, more people can benefit from it.

"Rivers of water are flowing in places in the village, where people have built such small hydropower plants at different places," he said.