Skip to main content

Amid Frequent Power Blackouts, Pakistanis Find Light In Memes

Pakistan's worst power outage in months became a source of humour for some in the country of 220 million, where an energy network desperately in need of an upgrade can lead to frequent blackouts and electricity rationing.

The nationwide outage, the second since October that left schools, hospitals and businesses without electricity, was resolved on Tuesday after 24 hours. Pakistan's energy minister blamed it on a lack of investment in the network and said lessons had been learnt.

Although the outage affected the internet and mobile phone services, it didn't stop many Pakistanis from taking to Twitter and other social media to share jokes and memes.

"Scenes at the home of that friend who has solar panels," Twitter user @zoeneedstherapy captioned a photo showing a single power outlet with five mobile phone chargers sticking out of it.

Millions of Pakistanis suffer partial blackouts almost daily, including scheduled "load shedding" power cuts aimed at conserving electricity.

The disruptions have fuelled years of strong demand for alternative power supplies and some local governments offer subsidised solar panels.

In a village outside the southeastern city of Jacobabad in Sindh province, a Reuters correspondent saw a single solar panel on the roof of the one-room home of a family of melon farmers.

"Nowadays everybody has solar panels ... but they face trouble at night because they have no other source of power," said Sara Khan, the principal of a girls' school in Jacobabad, which regularly goes through scheduled blackouts that last up to 18 hours a day.

In many big cities, including the capital Islamabad and financial hub Karachi, many residents have installed at least three backup sources: solar panels, uninterrupted power supply (UPS) units and fuel-powered generators.

"Electricity problems are common here," said Karachi-based lawyer Ishtiaq Ahmed. "People have alternative arrangements, but these also have their limit."

A popular meme taken from a Spiderman comic book showed three "Spidermen" standing in a circle, pointing to each other and saying "I have a UPS but it isn't charged"; "I have a generator that runs on fuel, but there is no fuel"; "I have a solar panel but there is no sunlight".

But the outages also take their toll.

Irfan Khan, a 30-year-old student preparing for an upcoming exam, said he lost power even before Monday's major outage.

"It was terrible," Khan said in the northeastern city of Peshawar after leaving his tribal area to prepare for the exam.

"I didn't charge my phone, I didn't study for two days and I didn't have water in the washroom."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/c9zhbHr

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

US Issues $25-Million Bounty On Venezuela President On Day Of His Oath

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose nearly 12 years in office have been marked by deep economic and social crisis, was sworn in for a third term on Friday, despite a six-month-long election dispute, international calls for him to stand aside and an increase in the US reward offered for his capture. Maduro, president since 2013, was declared the winner of July's election by both Venezuela's electoral authority and top court, though detailed tallies confirming his victory have never been published. Venezuela's opposition says ballot box-level tallies show a landslide win for its former candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, who is recognized as president-elect by several countries including the United States. International election observers said the vote was not democratic. The months since the election have seen Gonzalez's flight to Spain in September, his ally Maria Corina Machado going into hiding in Venezuela, and the detentions of high-profile opposition figures and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

It's Official, Kamala Harris Is Democratic Candidate For US Election

US Vice President Kamala Harris effectively secured the Democratic party's presidential nomination Friday, confirming her remarkable rise to party standard bearer in November's showdown against Republican Donald Trump. Kamala Harris was the sole candidate on the ballot for a five-day electronic vote of nearly 4,000 party convention delegates. She will be officially crowned at a Chicago convention later this month. "I am honored to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States," Kamala Harris, 59, said on a phone-in to a party celebration after securing enough votes by the second day of the marathon vote. In the two weeks since President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, Kamala Harris has gained full control of the party. No other Democrats stepped forward to challenge her elevation to the top of the ticket, making her confirmation as the first Black and South Asian woman ever to secure a major party's nomination a formality. The a...
Post a Comment
Read more

All You Need To Know About Donald Trump's 1st Criminal Trial

Donald Trump goes on trial Monday for allegedly covering up hush money payments to hide affairs ahead of the 2016 presidential election which propelled him into the White House. He will become the first former US president to go on criminal trial when jury selection begins next week. Here are the key questions ahead of the landmark trial: What is Trump accused of? As Trump closed in on victory in the 2016 presidential election, adult film star Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged 2006 sexual tryst with Trump. The payments, made by Trump's lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, were revealed by The Wall Street Journal in January 2018. Prosecutors have seized on the concealment of the payments as "legal fees" in the Trump Organization's accounts when Cohen was reimbursed as the heart of their case. Prosecutors say Trump "concealed the reason for these payments... which clearly were paid in order to influence voters," former prosec...
Post a Comment
Read more