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July 14, 2005
More power to the people
Could there be a worse time for KESC’s public image? A handicapped boy is suing the utility and a couple desperate to beat the blackouts dies from carbon monoxide poisoning after spending the night in their car with the air-conditioning on. Is the KESC really powerless to do something or will these cases serve as wake-up jolts? asks Mahim Maher
Everyone from the gannay ka juice-wallah to the Governor House needs electricity, declares Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) spokes-man Sultan Hasan while stating the obvious in the guise of a questionable defence for limited power supplies.
And while Hasan is more than well aware that the KESC is the bête noire of Karachi’s 1.8 million hungry electricity consumers, two recent news items appear to renew this feeling.
On June 24, a couple met their unusual deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning in Malir after they decided to sleep in their car with the air-conditioning on to escape a power failure. Ayaz Khan, 36, and Fahmida, 35, who were married about a year ago, had just returned from centrally air-conditioned Dubai, which was probably why the heat wave, occurring then, was unbearable for them.
On July 5, KESC received summons from the Sindh High Court in a damages suit worth Rs150 million. The plaintiff, seven-year-old Moham-mad Arman, was handicapped last year by a dangling high-tension wire in Orangi Town.
The couple’s deaths and Arman’s accident are both tragic, but it would be difficult to lump them together. Without a doubt, the KESC’s negligence is to blame for Arman’s case; is the corporation waiting for an innocent child to be maimed for life before it will wake up and realize that trailing wires need to be fixed immediately no matter what the shortage of manpower or resources?
But the couple’s deaths present a different crux. According to Hasan, the KESC cannot be held responsible for anyone’s lack of awareness. Residents in the Punjab, for example, are well aware that they should not leave their gas heaters on at night during winters. However, others would say that Ayaz and Fahmida’s deaths are indicative of the desperate conditions in Karachi when a power failure takes place. But a tired rant against KESC’s inefficiencies fails to yield any satisfactory result.
The alternative is the notion of collective responsibility involving citizens who should educate themselves in safety measures; KESC which should spread awareness, and the government which should facilitate such interaction.
The KESC and other public sector utilities and departments should team up with the government to regularly broadcast public service messages. In Australia, for instance, city governments repeatedly bombard the populace with messages to save water, stop watering their lawns and washing their cars when there is a drought.
In Pakistan, for example, it could be argued that the ORS campaign of the late 1980s had been largely successful, as people are aware now that the mixture is a remedy for dehydration and diarrhoea.
Sustained, prominent public sector radio announcements, television and newspaper advertisements and community or mosque-based messages should be disseminated to every nook and cranny of the country. Perhaps this is one of the ways we can limit the incidence of such accidents.
Fortunately, there is a silver lining to this cloud. Two years ago when temperatures were just as high, KESC’s 35 centres received up to 12,000 complaints a night. This year, though, with 100 complaint centres the number of phone calls has come down to about 4,000.
Either people are getting fed up of calling or the KESC has actually enjoyed a good season. More potential good news is that the utility is planning to have 12 more grid stations by the end of 2007, which could mean that there will be no more black-out blues in two years.
In the meantime, though, the KESC should take heed from the couple’s death and the boy’s accident, and put more of an effort into finding solutions than searching for excuses.
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