KHAPLU: Prolonged power cuts in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan have forced residents to keep fast in darkness as several parts of the region experience over 20 hours of load shedding during the holy month of Ramadan, residents said this week.
Gilgit-Baltistan, an impoverished, mountainous part of the larger Kashmir region, is home to 127 hydel and 34 thermal stations, but the region continues to suffer one of the worst power outages in the South Asian country.
The districts that are experiencing the longest power cuts in Ramadan include Skardu, Hunza, Gilgit and Ghanche, according to residents.
“Electricity has become a dream for us. We are experiencing over 20 hours of power outages,” Zakir Baltistani, a resident of the Skardu district, told Arab News on Thursday.
“We are observing iftar and suhoor in darkness. You can guess our miseries as we get electricity for only four hours a day.”
In central Hunza, the duration of load shedding nowadays is 20-22 hours, according to residents.
“Residents of lower and upper Hunza are facing 18 and 12 hours of power shortfall, respectively,” Kaleem Ullah, a resident of the district, told Arab News.
Abdul Rehman Bukhari, a journalist who resides in Gilgit, said they had been facing around 20 hours of power outages since October.
“In Gilgit city, on normal days, residents are provided two hours of electricity at night and two during the day time. In Ramadan, people are getting electricity for six out of 24 hours,” Bukhari said. “We are living without electricity. There is darkness everywhere.”
The prolonged power cuts have also piled miseries on the tiny business community and daily-wagers in the region.
“We are getting two, three hours of power daily and sometimes the voltage is very low,” Ghulam Rasool, a wielder in Khaplu, told Arab News. “There is no business nowadays as there is no electricity.”
Ali Darvaish, 50 and a carpenter, said they hardly received power for three hours a day. “We are free for days as we can’t work without electricity,” he added.
Kaleemullah said the main commercial area of Hunza, Ali Abad, received electricity for only six hours, which made things difficult for businessmen there.
Syed Nazar Kazmi, a social activist in Khaplu, blamed the power cuts on the “ineptness” of the power department officials.
However, an official of the GB power department said the gap in demand and supply of electricity was a major reason behind these power cuts.
“Power generation capacity in winter is 89.47 megawatts against a demand of 452MWs, while in summer, generation capacity is 122MW against a demand of 254MW,” Ghulam Murtaza, chief engineer at the GB power department, told Arab News.
“Overall in GB, the shortfall in winters is 362MW while in the summer it is 132MW. There is an acute shortage of power in Hunza, Gilgit and central Skardu as compared to other districts, because the demand in these districts is very high due to hotels and tourist influx.”
Secondly, Murtaza said, power shortfall remains high in GB as people do farming from March 1 till April 15 and require water for irrigation.
“We can’t stop them,” he said, “except for Skardu and Hunza, where load-shedding will be reduced to some extent by the end of this month.”