On a war footing

THE menace of loadshedding has reared its head yet again. The brief respite during Ramadan, allowing the people to breathe a sigh of relief, was broken by countrywide blackout spells extending to over eight hours per day. The explanation by the PEPCO chief that the loadshedding was the result of a power shortfall of 1500MW the company was experiencing, seems like another of the excuses that the authorities usually come up with. Another reason he gave was that the shortage of water in dams aggravated the power crisis, but it appears like an attempt to brush the problem under the carpet and is hard to buy. Dry dams are just one aspect of the problem; the country produces more than 80 per cent of its electricity from other sources like oil and gas.