M A I N   N E W S

POWER & WATER CRISES-I
Feeble monsoon throws life out of gear
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 20
A much-delayed and feeble start of the south-west monsoon, crippling power cuts and inadequate drinking water supply have not only thrown life out of gear, but made living conditions miserable throughout Punjab.

An extensive survey by The Tribune reveals that unannounced and unending power cuts have severely affected tubewell-based drinking water supply in most towns in the state. Though the monsoon have entered the state, only a single spell of scattered rain has been reported from Ferozepore, Amritsar and Ludhiana.

While the use of airconditioners in commercial establishments has been banned, no such action has been initiated in case of government offices where airconditioners run throughout the day because of uninterrupted power supply. The worst hit are hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostic centres where the demand for power supply is being mostly met through noisy generators.

Companies marketing power inverters are, perhaps, the only beneficiaries of this unusual nature-cum-man made crisis.

Power engineers admit that an unprecedented long spell of hot and sultry weather has put extra demand on power supply. Though the generation is an all-time high, yet complaints of poor power quality are on the rise.

The situation in rural areas is worse where claims of the PSEB technocrats of eight hours of uninterrupted power supply are refuted by district officials who maintain that nowhere rural power supply exceeds six hours a day.

Investigations reveal that besides the announced power cuts, the power supply remains disrupted in most parts of the state because of damage or burning of transformers at one place or the other. The short-load transformers and incapacitated system are unable to cope with the increased demand for power supply. As such, breakdowns are frequent and take long before the snags are rectified.

The PSEB authorities have decided that all streetlights would be switched off from 11 pm onwards all over the state. Earlier, it was fixed at 9.30 pm. The directive will remain in force till July 22 and reviewed thereafter.

The demand for power has gone up by two to four times in the domestic sector alone. In Amritsar, for example, one lakh connections consume about 3.5 crore units of electricity a month. But this time because of the prevalent weather conditions, the consumption has touched almost 10 crore units a month.

The situation in Ludhiana , one of the largest centres of small-scale industry, is also going from bad to worse with each passing day. According to Mr J. N. Sachdeva, Chief Engineer, Distribution Circle, there is a gap ranging between 25 to 30 per cent in the average demand and availability of power in this industrial hub. The average daily requirement of power during the day is around 400 MW, which shoots upto 900 MW at night.

The fate of industry is even worse. The PSEB decision to extend the three-hour peakload restriction to a whopping nine hours from July 15 has inflicted a blow to the industrial sector, especially small units in the city. According to the industrial fraternity, harsher restrictions on power supply have come as a shock and the entire production schedule has been disrupted.

Residents of Ferozepore, the oldest city in North India, had to do without water in the morning due to power cuts. Since the past few days, power supply is cut off early in the morning from 5 am to 8.30 am, disrupting the water supply. Similarly, at least two hours of power cuts are imposed each time in the afternoon, evening and midnight.

The immediate fallout is that feeders in urban areas and the industrial sector have been subjected to drastic power cuts - ranging from six to 10 hours per day - during the last few days, forcing the people to sweat it out in the sweltering heat.

Scores of localities in the old city of Ludhiana as well as posh residential areas are facing acute scarcity of water which the authorities in the civic body attribute mainly to the erratic power supply. Mr S. K. Sharma, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, claims that the water supply has been affected due to disruption of power or unscheduled power cuts and technical faults.

“Since the water supplied through tubewells is directly dependent on power supply, we have taken up the matter with the Punjab State Electricity Board to reschedule power cuts in residential areas so as not to affect the water supply.” The MC has also mooted a proposal for a separate power grid for a water supply network as a long-term measure.

With the completion of a Rs 33.52-crore project for augmentation of water supply during the last financial year an additional 30 per cent population has been brought under of water supply through a network of 310 tubewells and 62 overhead service reservoirs (OHSR’s), 1280 km of distribution lines and about 1.5 lakh water connections. The MC claims to be providing an upward of 200 litres per capita daily supply of water with supply being maintained for an average 12 hours everyday.

Ferozepore has been no better. There is hardly any water supply in the morning hours, much to the dismay of office-goers, students and others.

In Amritsar, the water supply position is pitiable. Only 65 per cent of the civic area is receiving adequate drinking water supply. Mr Jasbir Singh Bir, Commissioner, Amritsar, Municipal Corporation, admits that the supply is not satisfactory.

“The situation may worsen,” he fears as 32 of the 212 tubewells in the municipal area are in a state of disrepair. The civic body does not have a single generator set to keep the tubewells running. Ludhiana, for example, has 60 generator sets. Poor financial condition of the corporation is stated to be main reason for the absence of any contingency plan on this front.

Inputs from Prabhjot Singh (Chandigarh), Amarjit Thind (Ludhiana), Kulwinder Sandhu (Ferozepore) and Rashmi Talwar (Amritsar).

To be concluded