LAHORE, Jan 2: The poor distribution network of Wapda (Water and Power Development Authority) killed 39 employees and 70 others during the first five months of the current fiscal year.

According to the progress report of the authority, another 64 people including 46 employees had non-fatal accidents during the period. Another proof of the dilapidated state of Wapda's distribution network was the number of transformers damaged during the period: 3,230 transformers were damaged as against 2,571 in the corresponding period last year.

Similarly, the number of power trippings also went up substantially. Up to November, the system had suffered 225,301 trippings of less than 20 minutes each, as against 212,386 in the corresponding five months last year. Likewise, major power failures also registered an increase and numbered 28,990 as against 23,541 last year.

According to the report, Wapda arrears had gone up to Rs68.696 billion by the end of November - a staggering increase of Rs10.512 billion in the first five months of the current financial year. The authority had started the year with Rs58.184 billion.

Out of Rs68.696 billion, some Rs26.363 billion are due to private consumers and Rs41.869 billion to government agencies. The government default increased by Rs8.365 billion and the private default by Rs2.096 billion in the five months.

The accumulation of arrears was because of authority's failure to collect its bills for Rs104.7 billion. It was able to collect only Rs95.1 billion at the rate of 90.9 per cent. Last year, its collection stood at 93.5 per cent by November.

Line losses experienced a slight decrease if considered against the total units produced, but the number of units lost in the period went up. The auxiliary losses stood at 1.73 per cent, transmission losses at seven per cent and distribution losses at 15 per cent.

Last year, these losses were 1.87 per cent, 7.7 per cent and 15.1 per cent, respectively. The cumulative losses stood at 23.73 per cent, as against 24.7 per cent last year, but the number of units lost in the process increased from 6.798 billion to 6.939 billion.

Commenting on the situation, a former member (power) of Wapda said that the new management should take up the matter of improving its distribution network on a war footing. For the last few years, maintenance of the system had been put on the back burner.

Now, the entire system was on the verge of collapse, specially in view of the fact that the demand was likely to increase and the system would have to deal with extra load.

The authority had chalked out a plan to improve the system but it was yet to take off because of financial constraints. But, the authority must arrange money for the purpose even if it had to borrow money from commercial banks. Any investment in the system would return within two years in the shape of savings on line losses, he said.

The total turnover of Wapda runs into Rs170 billion, he said and added: "It must spend at least Rs10 billion on its distribution network during the next few years. Otherwise, it may not be able to privatize its distribution companies at a fair price."