Some shocking reasons for power cuts

Millions of people are suffering and most are blaming the government for the current four-hour daily power cuts in most parts of the country. Difficult times or times of struggle are widely known to be the time when we should deeply ponder on what we have done or fail to do as responsible eco-friendly citizens in this era of global warming and climate change.   

For instance Pope Francis has called on world religious leaders to come together for this battle against global warming and climate change because it is not only a personal or economic issue but an important part of our spirituality. This is also connected to poverty alleviation because it is the poverty-stricken and marginalised people who suffer the most from the climate change consequences including floods and droughts, cyclones and extreme weather conditions in Sri Lanka’s hottest days where people are virtually drinking sweat.

For the past few decades Sri Lanka has been depending far too much on hydroelectric power. We need to remember a famous saying about King Parakrama Bahu the Great (1153-1186), who is still remembered as the mastermind of the Parakrama Samudra. He said not a single drop of rain should reach the sea without people making use of it. 

To make this a reality we built more than 10,000 ‘wewas’ which are widely admired as marvels of ancient engineering. They have several layers and are built in such a way that during the rainy season, excess water is collected in these wewas to be used in times of drought. Down the centuries these wewas were neglected because the colonial powers which invaded Sri Lanka and even some Sri Lankan leaders who thought their modern ideas were better. 

In 2006, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) -- which then had about 40 seats in Parliament and several portfolios in the Chandrika Kumaratunga administration -- drew up plans to renovate some 10,000 wewas. The party started doing so but it pulled out of the government after a dispute on the proposed Post Tsunami Relief Operation with the LTTE. 

With the JVP pulling out of the government, the wewa restoration project was also dropped and we see the consequences today. The levels in the hydro power reservoirs have dropped so low, that we no longer can depend on them to meet a country’s electricity need. 

During the past 20 years, the ruling parties worked out an alternative energy source. One of the major projects was the Norachcholai coal power plant. Religious leaders and other area residents protested that it would have serious environmental consequences. 

It is strange that China, which no longer built coal power plants in that vast country, pushed hard for the Norachcholai project. Housing Construction and Cultural Affairs Minister Sajith Premadasa last week said the Norachcholai coal power plant was breaking down so often because it was riddled with kickbacks and corruptions with VIP politicians and others getting rich through a second rate project and millions of people are suffering the consequences now.   

If the wewas were masterpieces of ancient engineering, then it is widely alleged that the Ceylon Electricity Board engineers -- not all -- but some of them have become generator businessmen and want to sell power to the CEB at a high rate. So the projects for solar energy, wind energy and other alternative energy sources have virtually suffered a blackout blow and worse still millions of innocent people are suffering because of it.   

We hope this dark era will end and the government will use modern technology to consolidate alternative sources of energy so that we could move from darkness to light.