As one Chitral town gets electricity, many lose it

CHITRAL: The last two days have witnessed a strange development on the electricity supply in different parts of Chitral district.

Chitral town has started getting electricity from the 130 megawatts hydroelectricity station built by Wapda on Golen Gol, situated about 30 kilometres off the town.

The powerhouse has started generating 10 megawatts electricity, seven of which is going to be made available to Chitral town and Drosh. The remaining three kilowatts will go to upper Chitral, which has no electricity for the last three years after floods destroyed the four megawatts powerhouse at Reshun village.

But lack of agreement between Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) and Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (Pedo) means that they may not get this electricity in the immediate future.

Meanwhile, Booni, the second largest town of Chitral district, was pleasantly surprised when full voltage electricity from European Union-funded 500 kilowatts project of Sarhad Rural Support programme (SRSP) at Awi village flowed into the town.

Booni, like the rest of Upper Chitral, has been without electricity for the last three years because of the destruction of Reshun power station by floods. The government through Pedo has made a highly expensive diesel generation station to meet the needs of the Booni town each day.

The SRSP powerhouse has been built in Awi village about 10 kilometres away from Booni. A long channel has been built to bring water for electricity generation at the power house. A low head Francis turbine has been used for the first time to generate the electricity.

A representative of SRSP said that the powerhouse, not at full capacity because of seasonal low water levels, was nonetheless giving sufficient electricity to meet the needs of Booni town.

In another shock, consumers of Pedo around Koghuzi village where Golen powerhouse is situated, lost own electricity as the SRSP shut down its two megawatts powerhouse at Golen.

The SRSP had set up this power as a social enterprise to meet the needs of Chitral town partially. Electricity to the town was brought on Pedo lines, which were lying unused because of the breakdown of Reshun powerhouse. This benefited consumers in Ragh, Koghuzi and Kuju villages, which were part of Reshun consumers.

An official of the SRSP said it had supplied four million units of electricity in the last seven months to Chitral town and adjacent villages which has gone 90 percent to Pesco and 10 percent to Pedo consumers, who have collected bills from consumers while not paying the SRSP for it.

The standing committee of the National Assembly on power at a recent meeting was highly critical of these two organisations for not paying SRSP, which was a charitable organisation and had gone out of its way to help resolve a social issue that was a problem for the government and has asked these organisations to settle their accounts by end of February.

The supply of electricity from Golen is considered to be a big plus for the deposed premier Nawaz Sharif and incumbent Member National Assembly of Chitral Shahzada Iftikharuddin. They struggled to ensure that Chitral gets 30 megawatts of electricity before it is supplied to the national grid next year.

Traditionally in Pakistan, local regions, which have provided the resources for energy projects, have been deprived of benefits. This new tradition will go a long way in addressing grievances on the fringes of the country. But it is clear that there are many governance issues in the supply of electricity that require the government attention.