Electrical Code Violations
I'm tired of listening to the United States complain about how awful their conditions are when countries like Nepal, and India experience roughly 9-12 hour electrical brown outs daily. What would most teenagers do in the United States if we lost our power daily for such long lengths...
When winter comes to the highlands of Southasia, the demand for energy drives electric grids into breakdown and you have that dreaded term, load-shedding. In the summers, and on a scale much larger, ‘brownouts’ are a visitation upon the plains. VIP enclaves get privileged access, and well-to-do homes and businesses use inverters and generators. But for the rest, lifestyle adjustments are necessary.
In terms of the major metros, from what we know it is the citizens of Lahore, Kabul, Karachi and Kathmandu who have suffered the most this particular winter. While Karachi suffers about eight to ten hours brownouts daily, and Kabul and Lahore about 14, it is the capital of hydropower-rich Nepal that is today burdened with 16 hours of electricity outage. A recent visitor from Kathmandu to Calcutta and Dhaka – both cities that suffered much in the past – felt a sense of unreality when the lights just stayed on and on.
It is a depressing scenario for a country with a measly current hydropower generation of 561 megawatt, with winter demand outstripping 700 MW. All the while, the rivers run free with a mythical potential of some 83,000 MW of potential – second only to Brazil, it is said. How the country has come to this sorry pass of extreme electrical deficiency is also all too clear.
During the Panchayat years, before 1990, the development of the hydropower sector was stunted because it was kept under dramatic state control, as a way of keeping the kickbacks within the close circle of the royal family and hangers-on. But this was only one element. The strong undercurrent of anti-Indianism that dominates Nepali politics has also affected hydropower projects, which tend to be seen as attempts by India to push its agenda on Nepal. The widespread perception of Nepal having been cheated on two river barrage projects during the 1960s (on the Kosi and Gandak) has inevitably fed this sensibility.