People in parts of the country suffered up to 16 hours of power cuts as one of the worst load-shedding events was recorded on Monday amid the ongoing heatwave turning worse.
In the capital, where the day temperature reached 40.5C, the second hottest day in the city in the last 64 years, load shedding lasted for hours, up to six hours between 11:00am and 7:00pm on Monday.
Monday’s temperature surpassed that of April 20, when it reached 40.4C.
While people suffered long, unbearable hours of load shedding amidst the searing heatwave, especially in cities and towns, rice fields, mango and litchi orchards and betel leaf plantations lay parched.
Farmers burst into tears as they described the horrible situation in which a double strike of heatwave and drought left their crops burned as they could not adequately irrigate their cropland.
Farmer Ziaur Rahman, a resident of Balanagar, Bagmara, wept when he entered his betel leaf gardens on Monday as the leaves dried beyond the point of saving.
‘I could not operate my water pump for three hours between Monday morning and afternoon because of frequent power cuts,’ he said.
Amzad Hossain, another farmer in the area, told New Age in Rajshahi that spent his day sitting beside his water pump waiting for electricity to return for his mango orchard, betel leaf plantation and boro rice field all were dying from water shortage.
‘We are experiencing 16 hours of load shedding a day,’ said Amzad.
Parts of Rajshahi experienced from eight hours up to 16 hours of load shedding over the last four days. On Monday the day temperature in Rajshahi reached 42.6C.
Agriculturists already warned that intense heat accompanied by drought could seriously hamper crop production this year by affecting plants’ physiological activities.
Khaibur Rahman, a Barind Multiple Development Authority deep tube-well operator at Chandolai village under Godagari upazila, said that boro paddy at present was at its most crucial point of growth.
‘We cannot afford to have even an hour of load shedding. Any load shedding is disastrous now,’ he said, adding that it now takes much more time to irrigate a piece of land due to the severe heatwave and drought.
In Rajshahi city, load shedding lasted up to eight hours.
In Badda, Dhaka, six hours of power cuts were reported by the residents between 11:00am and 7:00pm.
‘This is unbelievable. Even half an hour of load shedding is unbearable in this excessive hot condition,’ said Sanjida Hossain, a resident of Uttar Badda.
Officials in Dhaka Electric Supply Company, responsible for supplying power to Badda, said that they recorded the highest power demand so far at 1,498MW on Monday.
The DESCO, however, said that there was no load shedding in its area and that the power outage worth 90MW in Badda, Gulshan and Baridhara was triggered by a transmission problem.
Data released by the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh showed that load shedding peaked at 3,196MW at 2:00pm on Monday with 12,753MW generated against the demand of 16,100MW.
With a capacity of 6,035MW, furnace-oil-based power plants generated only 1,770MW while coal-fired power plants with a capacity of 5,108MW produced only 2,630MW at the highest load shedding hour.
Gas-based power plants, on the other hand, generated 7,288MW against its capacity to produce 11,880MW, showed the PGCB data.
The import from India dropped to less than 600MW against the capacity of 1,100MW. The import through the Bheramara point dropped to 495MW.
The generation recorded at the peak load shedding hour manifested a significant loss as import from India fell sharply from 1,000MW.
The generation from gas, oil and coal also dropped significantly.
PDB member Khandaker Mokammel Hossain told New Age on April 28 that the surge in the load shedding was partly triggered by India cutting down its power export and fuel-oil-based power plants reducing their operations over unpaid bills.
On April 28, the load shedding peaked at 3:00pm at 2,366MW.
A high official in the PDB said that overdue electricity bills prompted power producers to refuse to generate more power.
In March, PDB’s total outstanding bills to the power producers reached Tk 59,507 crore, according to newspaper reports. The PDB requested the government in March to immediately release Tk 3,000 crore to partially pay the outstanding from import of electricity and coal to limit power shortage during the summer peak.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department’s bulletin issued at 6:00pm on Monday showed that a severe to very severe heatwave affected 15 districts, the largest area covered by temperatures at 40C or above this summer.
The BMD said that a very severe heatwave was sweeping through the district of Jashore, Chuadanga, Pabna and Rajshahi and a severe heatwave is sweeping Dhaka division and the rest part of Khulna and Rajshahi divisions.
A mild to moderate heatwave gripped Barishal, Rangpur and Chattogram divisions and the district of Mymensingh and it may continue, warned the BMD.
Bangladesh’s highest maximum temperature at 43C was recorded in Chuadanga on Monday.
This was the hottest day in Chuadanga in 10 years after the bordering district, the entry point of hot air from India, recorded 43.2C on May 21 in 2014.
In 35 years, Chuadanga’s hottest day saw the temperature rise to 43.5C on May 1 in 1995.
Last year, Bangladesh’s hottest day was April 17, when the temperature rose to 43C in Pabna.
The death toll from heatstroke climbed to 10 with three new deaths recorded between Sunday and Monday. Two of the new deaths occurred in Madaripur, while the third death occurred in Chattogram.
The Directorate of Health Services began reporting heatstroke on April 22, weeks later the heatwave began on March 31.
The ongoing heatwave continued for a month until Monday with no chance of letting up until May 2.-New Age
