RAWALPINDI: The twin cities were plunged into darkness on Friday afternoon as a nationwide blackout brought life to a standstill with the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) insisting that the fault was not on their end.

Electricity remained suspended in nearly all parts of the garrison city for seven to eight hours. While power was restored in some areas around 5pm, the backward and more remote parts had to wait until late evening for their electricity to be restored.

Caught unawares by the breakdown, residents of the twin cities had to face many hardships.

Nationwide outage causes water shortages, upsets city life

The power outage affected the water supply in the city as tubewells of the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) and the Rawalpindi and Chaklala Cantonment Boards stopped working.

Areas including Raja Bazaar, Gawalmandi, Ratta Amral, Mohanpura, Misrial Road, Naseerabad, Adiala Road, Saidpur Road, Satellite Town and Sadiqabad faced water shortages.

“The electricity remained suspended until late in the evening and we had no water nearly all day,” said Muhammad Raffique, resident of Tench Bhatta.

He said that locals tried to get in touch with Iesco officials, but their mobile phones were switched off and the helpline for complaints was busy throughout.

“I had to postpone my son’s birthday until Saturday because we could not make all the necessary arrangements during the blackout,” said Tahir Hanif, a resident of Khayaban-i-Sir Syed.

He said that power to the entire area remained suspended until late at night, creating problems for the commuters and motorists as well in the lack of streetlights. He said that water supply was not available in the area and there was no way to pump water stored in underground tanks for use around the household.

Mushtaq Ahmed, a resident of Ittehad Colony adjacent to Leh Nullah, said UPS machines died after two to three hours and people had to light candles to go about their daily chores.

Suhail Ahmed, a resident of Committee Chowk, said his family had not stored enough water and were caught off-guard by the breakdown.

Farooq Ahmed, a resident of Teli Mohallah, said that electricity was partially restored at 6pm, but actually returned around 7pm.

Hospitals in the twin cities also had to splurge on diesel for their emergency generators to ensure there was adequate power to keep medical equipment running.

Iesco Chief Engineer (Operations) Fayyaz Hussain told Dawn that the power breakdown was a result of a fault developed in the National Transmission Line and electricity was suspended to Iesco, plunging five districts; Attock, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Chakwal and Jhelum, into darkness.

Amjad Iqbal adds: The long power breakdown also took its toll on life in Taxila, where low temperatures and a water shortage made life miserable for many citizens.

As the electricity break down occurred just before Friday prayers, it caused immense problems for most worshippers and their families.

The breakdown was first reported around 12 noon and power was restored around 6pm.

“We have to do the laundry and other work on Friday and being without power caused a massive water shortage,” said housewife Asma Rani.

Business activities were also halted due to prolonged loadshedding in Taxila and Wah Cantt on Friday.

The shopkeepers and owners of the small businesses such as welders, hairdressers, laundry workers, tailors, internet centres, photocopiers, photo copiers, computer hardware technicians and motor mechanics etc. were forced to close shop very early.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2014