Rangoon Residents Suffer Power Cuts

By SAW YAN NAING

Local residents in Rangoon have been suffering the impact of a strictly limited electricity supply in the city for nearly one week now, according to sources in Rangoon.

Win Maung, a resident in Tamwe Township, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that his house had only been connected to the electricity grid for six hours a day since Monday.

“I was getting a full supply of electricity last week,” he said. “But this week, we have electricity for no more than six hour a day.”

For the purposes of electricity distribution, the city has been divided into three sectors—A, B, and C. Six hours electricity per day is supplied to each sector on a rotating basis. Sector A receives electricity from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m., Sector B from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sector C from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Despite the strict limits imposed on electricity distribution in the former capital, there has been no official statement by the government, said the sources.

However, observers have said that power cuts are inevitable all over Burma every year in late November and December because it does not rain and there is a lack of water in the country’s hydropower dams.

Households in Rangoon regularly receive full access to the electrical grid between June to November—supplemented by the rainy season. However, electricity is usually limited to six hours between late November and June.

The current electricity rationing has affected all local households and companies in Rangoon and has forced certain businesses—such as Internet cafés, printers and local journals—to close their doors during the power cuts.

Adversely, the cost of running a business has increased accordingly, said the sources.

The owner of an Internet café in Rangoon’s Sanchaung Township said he cannot make a profit these days. He said that he has to use all his cash flow on buying gasoline to run his shop on a generator. He said he has to close his shop sometimes during the day.

“I’m very disappointed with this,” said the shop owner.

The editor of a Rangoon journal, who spoke to The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity, said that he had been running his office on a diesel generator since Monday. He said that he has to buy three gallons of gasoline a day, which costs about 10,000 kyat (US $8) a day.

On November 24, the head of the Burmese junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, told delegates at the 15th annual general meeting of the Union Solidarity and Development Association that there have been huge improvements in the electricity sector in Burma in recent years.

Quoted in the state-run newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, he said, “There was only 228 megawatts in the past. But [we now have] 977 megawatts, thanks to the Yenwe, Shweli and Kengtawng hydropower plants.”

Than Shwe went on to say that efforts are being made to complete 14 new hydropower projects as soon as possible in order to produce more than 10,000 megawatts of electricity to “fulfill the electricity needs of the people.”