Load Shedding of Electricity in Bangladesh, people want govt action immediately

Rahela Begum, housewife of Bizli Moholla very anxiously seating
infront of her twochild's reading teble while electricity has gone

Bangladesh faces one of the worst power crises of the world. The total demand for electricity in the country is in fact less than the demand of a medium sized city in Europe. Still, due to lack of planned investment in the power sector, load shedding has become the flagship phenomenon of the country's electricity system. Unplanned urbanization and excessive system loss has compounded the problems. Some parts of the capital city of Dhaka may face black outs for more than 10 hours a day during the very hot summer. The power shortage eventually leads to the failure of water supply. Most citizens have to face a miserable life with little water and no electricity under the scorching tropical heat. Smaller cities and the countrysides of Bangladesh face a worse situation. Many villages of this low lying country are not yet electrified. However, the electrified villages get the real supply of electricity seldom more than 6 hours in each 24 hour span. There are no significant power station projects in the pipeline and the situation is going to get worse in the coming years.

Dhaka city is facing huge load shedding of electricity. Almost all part of Dhaka having load shedding of electricity everyday at least four to five hours eveyday. In Karwan Bazar, power disruption occurred five times with more than five hours of outage between 8:00am and 5:00pm and in 24 hours almost eight to nine hours. Multiple power cuts for periods totaling six to seven hours occurred in Eskaton Garden, Dhanmondi, Kalabagan, Moghbazar, Khilgaon, Goran, Shahjahanpur, Mohammadpur, Banani, Uttara and other places.

Every summer Bangladesh face huge load shedding problem. According to the official statistics, the country’s electricity shortage gone up 1000 megawatts (MW) to 1259 MW with the demand of 4806 MW on 2006. Authority said this year (2009) about 1400 MW to 1800 MW electricity shortage will face this year, which is almost twice more than last year and the country need about 5000 MW. So this summer we might face the problem that’s we have not face last ten years. In Bangladesh electricity power is not generate as much as our demand. So every summer we face huge load shedding and people are suffering, but in winter there is almost not load shedding. In summer temperatures goes up to around 40° Celsius. So in this situation if there is load-shedding of electricity people face uncertain condition.

Power Development Board (PDB) sources said while the official power demand was just 5000MW, the unofficial demand was hovering around 6000 MW. The officially estimated power demand is 5000 MW against a generation of around 3500 MW. Around 1500 MW power could not be generated due to short supply of gas to many power plants. Gas is a major concern also because several new gas-fired power plants with nearly 1000 MW generation capacity are expected to be drafted into service this year. “We are expecting 200MW new power generation from May. If we cannot ensure the gas supplies, it will become meaningless” PDB pointed out.

A PDB official said the real power situation was worse than the official picture. “The Rural Electrification Board (REB) needs 2500 MW, but is given less than half of that. Dhaka Electricity Supply Authority (DESA) and Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO) need more than 2000 MW power and the PDB needs another 2000 MW,” he added.

On 2007 government said by 2010 Bangladesh will be a load shedding free country. “We have set a target to generate sufficient electricity by the year 2010 to reach a level where there will be no load shedding,” said Mirza Azizul Islam, finance and planning adviser. But we don’t see any result of it day by day the rate of load shedding is increasing.

Street People in Dhaka

Dhaka is the capital city of Bangladesh. Many of the 9 million people who live in Dhaka are very poor. Some of those who live in greatest poverty are the street children. There are up to 1 million street children living and working on the streets of Dhaka.

street children

street children

Some of the children are on the street - they work, play and spend most of their day with other children on the street but have families to return to at night. These children often help the family earn money by working on the streets.

street children

street children

Other children are of the street - they survive without family, entirely on their own, except for the company of other street children or those willing to help and support them.

CSKS is a Street Children programme in Dhaka which supports children of the street and is one of the Global Footprints partners.

This activity gives you a chance to learn more about the problems facing street children. Below is a list of dangers and difficulties that children of the street have to face. What do you think are the most serious problems facing young people who live and work on the streets?

“Jamir shar is a youngster whose age is close to thirteen. This parentless lad came to Dhaka city three years ago. He lost his parents in a road accident. With nobody to take care of him, he sells nuts in different areas of Dhaka city. He lives with a family at Pirjangi Mazar in Motijheel, taking his two meals with them and giving them his total income, which ranges from Taka 50 to 60.” (Dhaka Courier)

“Anwar Ali sells tea, biscuits and cigarettes in the city’s parks. He came to Dhaka from Mymensingh (a district in Bangladesh) five years ago. His two sons live in Mymensingh with their mother. Sometimes Anwar Ali goes to his village. He lives near Khilgaon Rail Gate and starts his work at dawn returning late to his house made out of waste plastic.” (Dhaka Courier)

“Haris Ali, 40, lives at night in front of Sonali Bank at Motiheel Head Office. He came to Dhaka five years ago. At first, he was a laborer in Kamlapur rail station. He changed his track two years ago. Now he collects waste like scattered paper, broken pens, plastic stuff and different categories of vehicle parts. He sells these things at Nowabpur market. His regular income ranges from Taka 50 to 70.

Those three characters described are representative of the street people. There are thousands of characters like those in Dhaka city. You can find them in front of every market, commercial areas, in the bus terminals, around hotels, parks, on the pavements, around two main stadiums, all over old Dhaka and even on all VIP roads. They try to earn a living by doing various types of activities example, collecting rickshaws, serving tea, carrying goods in the terminals, selling various types of food and even water. Usually those street people go out with their torn and patched bags for the day’s collecting from garbage bins and those whom are beggars, go to those areas where they will get some kind of alms. Street people normally buy their meal from roadside food shops and eat sitting on bricks.

In Bangladesh Street people can be defined in two groups:

• Those who spend all the time in the streets as it is their home, where they eat, sleep, make friends and carry on other activities.
• Those who spend the day on the streets and at night they return home, even it be a mere shack in the slum.

In Bangladesh street people is increasing day by day mainly cause of migration to the urban streets, family breakdown, poverty and family size. People who are rootless or have been uprooted by flood, crop failure, river erosion etc. migrate to big cities. Most of the time, they don’t get any job so they beg on streets in order to make a living. In Bangladesh, about five hundred thousand people are engaged in begging. Street people don’t have any fundamental right like food, safe water, shelter, sanitation, health care and schooling.

Difficulties and dangers faced by children of the street

What do you think are the ten most serious problems?
Click on ten issues

Being hungry and not having enough to eat
Being tortured by police
Not having a bed to sleep on
Not enjoying the work they do on the streets
Feeling lonely; not having any friends
Not being able to get a job
Nowhere to go for protection from the rain
Feeling frightened and hopeless about the future
Not being able to learn to read, write and do maths
Being abused and robbed of their money by adults
Not having clean water to drink
Adults insulting them or physically hurting them
Not being able to get medicines when ill
Girls not being able to marry
Not having clean clothes to wear
Having very little money and earning very little from their work
Not having the power to protest against bad treatment by adults