As the heat intensifies, power cuts leave citizens fuming

KE spokesman denies reports of unscheduled electricity outages

As if bearing with extreme heat was not a feat on its own, the city’s residents – ever since the advent of May – have been facing extreme hardships owing to K-Electric’s (KE) unscheduled, prolonged electricity breakdowns.

This time around, the power outages have not even spared areas previously considered exempted from the power utility’s load-shedding schedule – carried out for revenue recoveries.

Speaking to The News on Friday, Jawad Ahmed, a resident of Bihar Colony in Lyari said that, “Previously we would be without electricity for six to seven hours but since the start of May we have electricity for five to six hours. In this extremely hot weather, one cannot imagine the agony of people living without electricity and water.”

He said he and his children woke up at 8:00am on Friday when there was an unannounced power failure in their area, and it took till evening for electricity to come back on. “I resorted to all means of complaints and approaches but failed to get my locality’s electricity restored,” the complainant said.

A similar situation was being faced by residents of almost every area of the city including Garden, PIB Colony, various sectors of Korangi, Landhi, New Karachi, Nazimabad, Sohrab Goth, Gulshan-e-Maymar, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Shah Faisal Colony, areas of Malir.

According to some experts, one of the leading causes of the Chikungunya outbreak is power breakdowns. People are forced to sleep in open areas without fans, rendering them vulnerable to mosquito bites.

“Many patients brought to our hospital complained that they were bitten by mosquitoes since they slept on the rooftops of their homes or in courtyards due to absence of electricity in summer,” said Dr Saif-ur-Rehman, a medical practitioner in Orangi Town.

Health experts say that it becomes highly agonising to spend nights inside small rooms of concrete especially when the sea breeze stops blowing and hot air from the plains of interior Sindh and Balochistan add to an extremely hot weather.

While some have resorted to online protests, others are also thinking of organising street protests against KE and have called upon their elected representatives, political parties and various other pressure groups to mobilise people.

“I am using social media including Facebook and Twitter and tagging various political leaders in my posts and tweets so as to make them take notice of our helplessness. But it seems that they are least concerned about our woes,” observed social worker Fayyaz Alam.

On the other hand, the KE which had earlier openly acknowledged resorting to ‘power management’ since one of their units tripped, claimed that the tripped Bin Qasim power plant came back online this past Sunday and that had improved the situation.”

A spokesman for the power utility observed that the KE was “currently carrying out routine load-shedding and no unannounced power outages were being carried out in the city”.

“All efforts are being made to provide maximum relief to customers. We are grateful to our valued customers for their cooperation and deeply regret the inconvenience caused.”

“All strategic installations including KWSB pumping stations, airport, key hospitals, etc remained unaffected during load management spells. The KE remains committed to serving the people of Karachi,” the spokesman added.