KARACHI, April 9: School-going children are the worst-hit victims of power breakdowns in the city which continued unabated on Wednesday as mercury stood at 40 degrees Centigrade.
More than 400,000 students study at about 3,000 private schools while some 575,000 students study at 3,000 government schools. While government schools lack infrastructure, in some cases even fans, private schools also offer little comfort to students who, at times, have to study in rooms with little ventilation.
A student of St Pat’s in Saddar said she had a very tough day at school where they faced a prolonged power breakdown. “Studying in a stuffy room, we went through the motions of study while we all sweated like hell. Nobody can read anything with peace of mind under such circumstances. Naturally, I came back home with an excruciating headache.”
What the girl said is true of hundreds of thousands of students who face power breakdowns at school. It has been observed that most schools attach little importance to the environment in which students study.
A mother recently phoned Dawn to lodge her complaint against the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation. She said she had two complaints, both about unscheduled power breakdowns.
“We have no idea when we will lose our electricity. I am a working woman and I cannot be home at all times. Sometimes when we have a prolonged power breakdown, I fail to iron the uniforms of my children. They are scolded, and at times beaten up, at school for wearing crumpled uniforms. Second, my children do their homework at night because they have a nap in the afternoon. In case of a power breakdown, they have to do their homework by candlelight which is not good for their eyes.”
Calling from many localities in the city, KESC consumers told Dawn that they lived a miserable existence without electricity, in some cases more than once.
Sources in the power utility said that during last summer, which had been as nasty as the current one, the maximum electricity demand during the peak hours had risen to 1885 megawatts. They added that in view of the annual growth rate of consumers, the power demand this year was expected to rise to 1900 megawatts this year.
“Unable to meet the power requirements of its 1.7 million consumers, the KESC borrows about 450 megawatts from the Water and Power Development Corporation. This link is, however, quite unreliable, especially when the chips are down and more electrical power is needed all over the country. This link gave the KESC away on Tuesday,” they explained.
Meanwhile, incensed KESC consumers told Dawn that it was beyond them why the power utility was shy of announcing loadshedding. “I have often been told by my regional complaint centre that transformers have been switched off because of overloading. Why can’t the KESC announce this in advance,” a consumer from Nazimabad told Dawn.
A KESC spokesman, however, said that during summer a large number of people started to use their air-conditioning systems wrongfully, thus putting more strain on the over-strained infrastructure of the power utility.
Calling from North Nazimabad, Block N, Ms Hassan told Dawn that for the past several days her locality faced unannounced power breakdowns almost every day. “Yesterday we had a power breakdown from 1am to 5am. Today we have power breakdowns two times. Many appliances at home, including our refrigerator, has been adversely affected by frequent power cuts.”
