Home ›› 18 Apr 2023 ›› Nation
A severe heat wave has been sweeping across the northern region over the last few days, making commoners’ life extremely miserable.
Local sources said the ongoing heat wave and frequent power outage has caused severe suffering to the commoners and hampered the business, and production in the mills and factories in Rangpur division.
Business in shops, markets, and shopping malls of the city ahead of Eid has been badly frustrated. People rarely come out of their homes due to the unbearable hot temperature.
According to the Rangpur Met office, the highest temperature in Rangpur was recorded at 36.8 degree Celsius on Monday noon. The temperature has been fluctuating from 34-36 degrees Celsius for the last few days in the district, said, Mostafizur Rahman an assistant Metrologies at the Rangpur Met office,
Power cuts have brought severe suffering to people from different walks of life and caused loss of production in mills and factories. The hot spell has affected especially the daily workers, farm workers, and rickshaw and van pullers. Moreover, academic activities of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinees have also been seriously hampered as people have been experiencing six to eight times power outages in 24 hours. Each spell lasts for at least one hour.
When asked, the Chief Engineer of Northern Electricity Supply Company (NESCO) Ltd Rangpur division, Mohammad Zakir Hossain said, “The power demand varies often. The highest demand in the division on Sunday night was 999 MW while we got 839 MW. As the supply falls short, we have to adopt rationing measures for load management.”
He however terms it a temporary crisis and hopes to improve the situation soon.
An official of NESCO sales and distribution division – 3 Rangpur city requesting not to be named said, there are three divisions inside the city. The regular electricity demand of the city is around 75-80 MW while the supply sharply falls to 40-55 MW due to less power production in the country.
Mohammad Shajahan, a secondary teacher who is also a resident of the Nurpur area of Rangpur city said, “We have been experiencing frequent power outages during the twenty-four hours amid the ongoing heatwave. Our daily activities have been badly hampered.”
Aysha Siddiqui, an SSC examinee in the Robertsonganj area of the city said, “We are facing immense troubles to continue our study for the ensuing examination amid the hot spell and frequent power cuts.”
Manager, Ms City Filling Station of the city, Ashraful Islam said, “Frequent power disruption hampers our trade and business. We need to start an auto-generator for fuelling the vehicles during the load shedding that increases our cost and expenditures.”
Tanvir Ashrafi, a super shop owner of the city said, their business ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr has been badly marred as the customers feel reluctant to enter the market for shopping due to frequent power cuts amid the hot temperature.
Nur Nabi, a van puller in Mahadebpur area of the city said, he has not been going out to work for the last three days due to the extremely hot temperature. It is so tough to carry products driving the van amid the scorching heat during the daytime.
Public Relation Advisor (PRA) Karupannya, a handloom factory in Rangpur city, Mahbub Rhaman Habu said, “Our factory is cent per cent foreign export-oriented. It has to operate round the clock to meet the deadline of international buyers. The power crisis has been causing production loss in the factory for the last couple of days.”
“We have to incur a huge amount of foreign currency loss if the crisis goes on a few more days,” he added.
Meanwhile, people in Rangpur region have been suffering from different diseases including heat stroke, fever, stroke, influenza, cough and diarrhoea due to changes in the season
Sources of the emergency department of Rangpur Medical College Hospital (RpMCH) disclosed that the number of hot spells affected patients has been increasing in the hospitals during the last few days. Many of them have been affected by heat stroke.
Civil Surgeon, Rangpur, Mohammad Jahangir Hossain said the temperature in Rangpur has become extremely hot for the last few days which is hazardous for health.
“We are advising people not to go outside in the hot temperature unless there is an emergency. People should drink a lot of pure, lemon water and green coconut water. Children and elderly people should be taken care of,” he added.
