The government in Nepal has announced major power cuts to battle the growing shortage of electricity in the country. From this week, supplies will be cut off to homes and businesses for a staggering 16 hours a day. Industries are running on less than 20 percent of their capacity. Nepal's Maoist government has declared a "national power crisis."
Dutch journalist Lucia de Vries lives in Nepal's capital Kathmandu and she told RNW that it was very strange:
"You live in a modern city. There's no electricity, there's also no water. So you feel like life is slowly degrading...Children have to study by candlelight, industries are closing down. It is very hard in the long run to know how people can deal with this."
 Street in Kathmandu (photo: Soman) |
Until recently, the Nepal Electricity Authority imposed daily power cuts of 12 hours. But the growing demand for electricity in winter is putting a strain on generating capacity. Senior NEA official Sher Singh Bat said that plans to increase power outages from next month have been brought forward because there is not enough water in the rivers and reservoirs to power hydro electric plants, and the winter snow has not yet melted to top them up. Mr Sher Singh Bat says: "The situation could ease a little bit in the summer, but the power cuts are here to stay for another five to six years."
The NEA currently generates 300 megawatts of electricity against demand for 800 megawatts. Nepal also imports electricity from India, but the main supply pipeline in east Nepal was washed away by floods in the River Koshi in early 2008. The country is also close to bankruptcy and can ill afford to import electricity even if it were physically possible.
Self-inflicted
The Maoists blame the previous government for not building new power stations on time, but throughout the ten-year power struggle with the government one of the Maoists' main goals was to destroy Nepal's infrastructure.
Journalist Lucia de Vries says:
"It is quite ironic because now the Maoists themselves are facing this enormous problem due to this destruction."
The energy crisis is the latest blow to the Maoist-led government. Barely 40 percent of the 27 million population has access to electricity. The rest mainly depend on wood for cooking and heating. Unless new ways can be found soon to generate more electricity, the power cuts in Nepal could last until 2016.
More:
RNW's MediaNetwork blog: Power cuts reduce Nepal tv transmission hours