Load shedding is getting worse, and the country will have to survive another weekend, as temperatures keep on soaring, and increased temperatures make more and more people turn on fans and air conditioners. The primary reason for there being a shortage of electricity is a double whammy of furnace oil shortage, which means thermal genertion plans are forced to remain idle, as well as the failure of glaciers to melt, which means that hydel power is not generated. While the formation and melting of glaciers is outside the ability of government to control, the availability of furnace oil is also a problem. Simply put, the PTI Government did not place orders for furnace oil, which has led to the present crisis. The new government did not handle this crisis as soon as it took over, taking its own time to appoint an Energy Minister in Khurram Dastagir Khan, who has now promised that the furnace oil he ordered should arrive by Monday, just in time for Eid. However, the last fasts will pass as the earlier ones, sweltering in the heat without power.
However, even if the current crisis is overcome, there are going to be more ahead. The country is still about two weeks away from the traditional hot weather, which will last until the monsoon in July. Snow melt might mean some hydel production, but it seems that the effects of climate change are kicking in. Both people and government must accept the reality that temperatures will begin to rise earlier, and the hot weather will last longer. Monsoons will be briefer and less intense, with naturally deleterious consequences for both power generation and irrigation.
The government should remember that while the PTI government’s failure to import furnace oil may well have been a ‘landmine’ for the new government, making a clamour about it won’t even win the government brownie points. The government must buckle down and seriously consider how to tackle the problem of climate change, without indulging in such escapist plans as the Billion-Tree Tsunami. Even if proper attention is paid to the problem now, it may well be too late for this year. Butt his is a problem which is not going to go away. It is going to be back next year, and the year after that, and so on. Therefore, solutions must be worked out, and implemented.
