Home ›› 16 Jun 2023 ›› Opinion
The intense heat of the sun for several days along with the load shedding is making life miserable. Extreme heat has brought extreme suffering to people’s lives. To escape the heat, people naturally use electricity to get a touch of artificial cooling through fans, air conditioners (AC) etc. But we have to make sure that we don’t waste electricity.
It is important to note that we should close the electrical switches after work. We should use electricity as much as we need. Nowadays, due to the availability of electricity system, many people, for reasons or for no reason, waste electricity, which is detrimental to the overall electricity system of our country. Many people sleep with lights on at night. Leave room light, fan or wifi switched on when going out. In these cases, we need to be aware.
Avoid using unnecessary lights to save electricity. Use energy efficient lighting systems. Keep air conditioners off when not needed. Clean air conditioner filters at least once a month and service them once a year, keep fans off when not needed, limit the use of electric irons when not needed, microwaves, computers, TVs, ovens, printers, photocopiers, if not needed. Switch off chargers etc. appliances, even if it hurts us temporarily, for the larger interest of the country we should help the government in this regard and become energy efficient. Electricity is our national resource. So everyone should be aware to prevent wastage of electricity.
A classmate friend said on Facebook messenger, not only criticizing the government is necessary, sometimes it is also necessary to praise. The truth is, the way the people of the country are criticizing the government through media and various social media on the recent budget, taxes and loadshedding, there is not an iota of praise for the government. However, the fourteen years of the Awami League government has improved its power. The people of the country have been given the gift of important facilities like Padma Bridge, Metrorail and Karnaphuli Tunnel, but we are stingy! The main reason behind this is that the first thing to say is a Hindi proverb! We have to eat and live for the praise we give to the government. If we are not alive, how can we justify the development of the government? We the common people now see fire wherever we look, we are now eating fire, living in fire. So I am forced to say, it is not the failure of the government or the Awami League, but our karma! In such a situation, the government does not praise! My dear friend, may be unwilling to admit, the progress made by the government, if a party does so after fourteen-fifteen years of continuous power, is not much, nothing extraordinary. Still applaud the government for such developmental activities, hopefully the other pending projects will also be completed on time. But, as my learned politician banker friend may have forgotten, constructive criticism is not a curse but a blessing for a democratic government. Curse them, the political leaders and activists of the government party keep silent even after seeing injustices and irregularities at various levels of the party or the government, sing the party’s justification, and say loudly, Yes Lord Yes Lord. Anyway, for now, I’m not going to talk about friends or taxes and budgets. I will conclude with some suggestions for the government to reduce load shedding.
In the middle of last April, the government suddenly announced that it has created a record in electricity production. The maximum production per day is about 15,000 megawatts! According to Ulesnkh, Bangladesh’s total generation capacity till then was about 27,000 MW which is almost twice its demand. I am not writing the exact number here, there is a good reason for that too, so again no one will take this topic in a different sector. I personally feel that where the generation was more than our demand, there was not much, if not less, of an MP ferrying electricity. Anyway, what has happened is that we have to go through a crisis like load shedding, we have power shortages in a span of two months. The main two reasons for this, the government is telling us, are the energy crisis in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war and the shutdown of some of our power plants in that crisis. In such a situation, just as the government has nothing to do, the role of the opposition party to clean up the corruption will not get rid of it. Only if you can do the following few things, you can avoid this load shedding to some extent. Let’s see what those things are!
First, educational institutions at all levels, like primary schools, may be declared closed for a minimum of 15 to 20 or a maximum of 30 days. Secondly, office hours of all government institutions can be reduced. Thirdly, the period for opening of all business establishments and shopping malls can be reduced. Fourthly, rechargeable auto-rickshaws in rural areas of the country may be temporarily banned. Fifthly, the beautifying lights of various institutions and roads can be kept off. And finally, social resistance should be created by making people aware to prevent wastage of electricity, be it institutional or household. This will reduce the demand to some extent, and the general public will get uninterrupted power, even during the night. Can the government do these things? If possible, we should all be aware enough and work together to prevent wastage of electricity. Are we the general public agrees? The answer is, if not, then this loadshedding cannot be reduced, but may worsen, until our shutdown power plants are restarted.
The writer is a freelance contributor. She can be contacted at [email protected]
