DADU: Some 200 villages across the Kachho belt on the outskirts of Dadu have been without electricity for three days following the collapse of a pylon carrying 1,100kV cables near Wahi Pandhi and Tando Rahim Khan towns.

The pylon was brought down by a dust storm and strong winds that followed it three days ago. Power supply to all villages in the Kachho belt was discontinued as the cables snapped from the feeders at three different places.

Residents of the affected villages claimed that no maintenance teams from the Sukkur Electric Supply Company (Sepco) turned up at any of the places to carry out the repair and restoration work.

They said they were facing immense hardship due to the absence of electricity amid hot weather conditions.

While taking part in a protest demonstration at the 132kV grid station in Wahi Pandhi, they said Sepco officials were paying no heed to their repeated calls for the restoration of electricity to their areas although they approached the power utility’s senior officials in Dadu and Johi towns.

They said that the outage had made their tube wells non-functional and was also causing an acute shortage of drinking water.

When contacted for his comment, Sepco executive engineer at Dadu Tajammul Hussain Baig claimed teams of engineers and technicians had been sent to the area from Johi subdivision and that the repair and restoration work had already been started. He expressed the hope that electricity to the area would be restored soon.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2020