On Monday, electricity went out at 8:00am and came back at 8:40am. Then it went out again at 10:00am and came back at 10:30am. The cycle repeated itself when power went out again at 11:45am and came back at 12:20pm. It continued the cycle till 3:00am the next day.
— Shuvescha Ghosh, Resident
With the heat wave blowing all over the country and putting people's lives in discomfort and misery, frequent load-shedding has doubled down on the sufferings of Chattogram's residents.
Although the country set a new record of power production on Monday, people in different areas of Chattogram city have been suffering in the scorching heat due to frequent power cuts in the past three days.
According to Power Development Board (PDB), power plants in Bangladesh produced 15,604 megawatts of electricity on Monday, which is a new record.
However, in most areas of the port city, power outages occurred eight to 10 times a day. Residents cannot even sleep at night due to the heat, as the power goes out even at midnight.
The situation is worse in rural areas. Once the electricity's gone, there is no news of it coming again for hours.
The highest temperature of the city was recorded at 33.7 degrees centigrade on Monday, said Harun-ur-Rashid, forecast officer of Chattogram Met Office.
The official said humidity was recorded at 80 percent on Monday, while it was 78 percent on Tuesday.
"When there is more humidity in the air, people feel more heat in their bodies," he said.
Shuvescha Ghosh, a resident in the city's Askar Dighir Par area, said, "I cannot sit to study due to the heat. I cannot even sleep properly at night due to frequent load-shedding."
"On Monday, electricity went out at 8:00am and came back at 8:40am. Then it went out again at 10:00am and came back at 10:30am. The cycle repeated itself when power went out again at 11:45am and came back at 12:20pm. It continued the cycle till 3:00am the next day."
Shuvescha, a graduate of the English Department of Chittagong College, is currently preparing for the BCS examination.
"I have seen on the television that the country has set a record of power production, so I don't understand why we have to suffer due to the frequent power outage," he said.
Like Shuvescha, many people in different areas of the city, including Halishahar, Bahaddarhat, Oxygen, Agrabad, Chawkbazar, Battery Goli, Askar Dighir Par, Anderkilla, Shulakbahar, Panchlaish, Muradpur and Bibirhat areas, have been suffering in the past three days due to frequent power cuts.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (Cab) in a statement sent to the media on Tuesday demanded that the government put an end to load-shedding in Chattogram by generating more power from the national grid.
In the statement, the Cab leaders said public life is already being severely disrupted due to extreme heat, and power outages have added more to this suffering.
Contacted, Cab Central Vice President SM Nazer Hossain said before Ramadan, the electricity, water and gas authorities assured consumers that there will be no shortage of supplies during Ramadan. But now, electricity and water shortage are making people's life miserable in the port city.
"We have heard that production has stopped in some power stations in Chattogram. In that case, the government should generate more power from the national grid to Chattogram," he added.
Contacted, Shampa Nandi, assistant chief engineer of PDB, Chattogram, declined to make any comments on the matter.
However, Gias Uddin, executive engineer of PDB, Chattogram, admitted to The Daily Star that the production of power in some stations has been hampered due to different reasons. However, he also mentioned that it was not the reason behind frequent load-shedding in Chattogram.
"We always receive power from the national grid. Our power stations generate power to the national grid which distributes power all over the country," he added.
Gias also said the daily electricity demand of Chattogram is 1,300mw. However, it only gets around 700mw from the national grid.
Contacted, Rezaul Karim, chief engineer of PDB, Chattogram, said Chattogram receives around 300mw less power than its daily demand from the national grid, which he claimed is the reason behind such frequent power outages.
