Summer load-shedding
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
Ahh, as the summer heat rolls in, the power outages seem to be on the rise, this year more than usual. I don't know if this is the case for everywhere on the island, but where I live, we seem to experience about two outages every day, lasting from anywhere between 30 minutes to 2 hours.
I've been trying to post stuff on the blog since yesterday but the power keeps going out while I'm writing. This time I've been saving this every two minutes to make sure I don't lose anything. I understand that it is necessary for this load-shedding to occur, but I wish they would at least announce the timings in the media as they usually did in previous years. That way I would know not to sit down and start writing just before the power goes out.
I don't want to sound ungrateful though, as I do have the relative luxury of being able to enjoy an air-conditioned home, workplace and car. There are thousands of others that aren't as lucky, who have to toil away underneath the boiling sun day in and day out, such as this chap:
But I do think that the Ministry of Electricity & Water should be able to predict by now the level of energy consumption this summer, and have arranged for something. It seems bizarre that given the vast amount of natural resources available to us on the island, and in our neighbouring countries, that we should still have such shortages.
That said, I also think that real efforts should be made in tandem to encourage consumers and industry to conserve energy and water during the summer months. It would be good to see some local environmental societies collaborate with the Ministry of Electricity & Water to start a public awareness campaign about the necessity to conserve resources. Usually, the most we get is a statement in the GDN from a ministry official urging people to limit their consumption. But it might also be useful to take out a few full pages colour ads in the local press, and on some road side billboards, informing us of what each of us can do to reduce energy and water consumption. They should also remind consumers that it is in their interest to do so, since it will reduce their bills.
I've been trying to post stuff on the blog since yesterday but the power keeps going out while I'm writing. This time I've been saving this every two minutes to make sure I don't lose anything. I understand that it is necessary for this load-shedding to occur, but I wish they would at least announce the timings in the media as they usually did in previous years. That way I would know not to sit down and start writing just before the power goes out.
I don't want to sound ungrateful though, as I do have the relative luxury of being able to enjoy an air-conditioned home, workplace and car. There are thousands of others that aren't as lucky, who have to toil away underneath the boiling sun day in and day out, such as this chap:
But I do think that the Ministry of Electricity & Water should be able to predict by now the level of energy consumption this summer, and have arranged for something. It seems bizarre that given the vast amount of natural resources available to us on the island, and in our neighbouring countries, that we should still have such shortages.
That said, I also think that real efforts should be made in tandem to encourage consumers and industry to conserve energy and water during the summer months. It would be good to see some local environmental societies collaborate with the Ministry of Electricity & Water to start a public awareness campaign about the necessity to conserve resources. Usually, the most we get is a statement in the GDN from a ministry official urging people to limit their consumption. But it might also be useful to take out a few full pages colour ads in the local press, and on some road side billboards, informing us of what each of us can do to reduce energy and water consumption. They should also remind consumers that it is in their interest to do so, since it will reduce their bills.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 at 7/13/2004 04:25:00 pm. Permalink
7/14/2004 04:30:00 pm
Ahh, as the summer heat rolls in, the power outages seem to be on the rise, this year more than usual. I don't know if this is the case for everywhere on the island, but where I live, we seem to experience about two outages every day, lasting from anywhere between 30 minutes to 2 hours.
WAIT A MINUTE! I thought it was only in Iraq where the evil Americans rule that there are power outages.
Is it possible that the "mainstream" American media is wrong?
/worldclass sarcasm
Steve