ASIFUR RAHMAN

The government continues to struggle to meet electricity demand amid a sweltering heatwave, with rural Bangladesh suffering frequent and lengthy outages as power generation remains under strain due to fuel shortages.

Bangladesh’s power system largely depends on imported gas, coal, and furnace oil, supplies of which have fallen since the US-Israel war on Iran began.

Consumers in most rural areas reported seven to eight hours of power cuts a day, some up to 10 hours. People in urban areas, outside Dhaka, are experiencing two to three hours.

To reduce the disparity, the government decided to increase load shedding in urban areas as well, State Minister for Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources Aninda Islam Amit told parliament yesterday.

As part of the initiative, 110 megawatts (MW) trial load shedding will be introduced in Dhaka, he added.

Officials said the shortfall may translate into one to two hours of power cuts in Dhaka city.

As per the Power Development Board’s forecasts, in Dhaka district, areas under the Rural Electrification Board (REB) were facing around 500MW of power cuts yesterday. However, no load shedding was forecast for Dhaka Power Distribution Company and Dhaka Electric Supply Company, the two distributors in the capital. REB supplies to 75 percent of total electricity consumers in the country.

Aninda said it was not right that urban residents would remain comfortable while rural people suffered. He added that a discrimination-free Bangladesh was the spirit of the July uprising.

“To eliminate this gap, we have decided to enforce load shedding in cities if necessary, so that farmers in villages can get adequate electricity for irrigation,” he said.

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