KARACHI, May 7: Shahida Kausar Farooq, an environmental activist, has expressed her grave concern over the deteriorating power supply situation in Karachi, the commercial hub of the country often described as Pakistan’s ‘revenue engine’.

In a statement, she said that ever since the KESC was privatized, a decline in power generation and problems in distribution was being noticed and this had been resulting in load-shedding and other causes of disruption in power supply. The situation had ultimately been affecting commercial and industrial activities seriously.She said that the Wapda-KESC dispute over the quantum of supply to the latter was creating the situation and the ultimate sufferers were the consumers.

Ms Shahida urged the federal and provincial governments to take serious notice of this situation and take steps for providing relief to people, especially at this point of time when students were making preparations for their examinations.She referred to the hot weather conditions prevailing in Karachi, and said that the power breakdowns in such conditions had been making life even more miserable. The disruption in power supply was also creating shortage of water in various parts of the city and, in some cases, triggering violence, too.

She said she was astonished to note that while vast city areas plunged in darkness on account of loadshedding, almost all marriage halls and lawns could been seen glittering with extraordinary lighting.

She suggested that such halls and lawns be made to close down by 11pm until the power supply situation improved so that energy could be conserved and supplied to deficit areas.

Similarly, she said, much of the electricity was being consumed in big shops and shopping malls which remained open till late in the night.

She urged the authorities to bring such shops and markets under some sort of regulations and that they should be made to observe the timings adjusted with a view to conserve energy. In this context, she proposed early opening and early closing of such concerns. The energy thus conserved could be supplied to industries, as well as residential areas, she added.

Ms Shahida stressed the need for more power generating stations in Karachi, pointing out that no such station had been constructed after the Bin Qasim Unit. She said that private sector should be offered attractive terms in this regard.

She hoped that the work on KESC-Hubco link would be accomplished expeditiously enabling Karachi to receive full load of Hubco power and reduce its dependence on supplies from Wapda.—APP