Power, water crises grip Chittagong
Children push a rickshaw van with cans of water at Lalkhan Bazar to meet their family demand. They carry water from Jamal Khan Road to Lalkhan Bazar area, around two kilometres away from their residences very often. Photo: Zobaer Hossain Sikder
Power generation has come to a minimum level, resulting in serious loadshedding even in the winter here for lack of sufficient gas and fall in water level in the Kaptai Lake. The repeated disruption in power supply is also hampering production and lifting of water by Chittagong Wasa causing serious water crisis in the port city. The loadshedding caused Chittagong Water and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) witness a 15 percent fall in its production. The worst sufferers of the power shortage now are the students who will appear in the upcoming SSC examinations as they hardly get the power at night. Sources at the Chittagong Power Development Board (PDB) said against the total capacity of 766 Megawatt (MW) in 10 power units under three power plants in Chittagong region comprising Cox's Bazaar, Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban, only 90MW power is being generated in the day hours while on an average 135MW during the peak hours at night against the demand of around 500MW. One 210MW capacity unit, out of two, in Raozan Thermal Power Plants now produces 90MW during the day while one 50MW unit, out of five units, in Kaptai Hydroelectric Power Plant adds 40MW to 50MW during peak hours at night. Beside this, national grid contributes 260MW to 280MW in the daytime while 220MW to 230MW in the nighttime. Against this situation, the power consumers in Chittagong are to experience on an average 160MW loadshedding. The amount would stand at around 200MW in the upcoming peak season when the total demand would stand at 575MW to 600MW, sources said. Lack of sufficient water in the Kaptai Lake only one unit, out of five, is functioning while the authorities kept the rest four units closed since November last year for same reason. Water level in the lake was 83.18msl (mean sea level) on Sunday while it usually stands at 96.02msl in this season. But, the level stands at highest 109.00msl in the rainy season which is standard level for running all the units there. Besides, one unit, out of two with 210MW capacity each of Raozan Plant, remained shut down for nearly a year for want of gas supply. Meanwhile, Shikalbaha Power Plant on the other bank of river Karnaphuli has three power units with capacity of 116MW. The productivity of two barge-mounted plants at the plant has already expired. One of them went out of order earlier while the other can produce 10MW at best depending on availability of gas. The rest one also kept closed due to gas shortage. The Chittagong PDB requires 100 to 102 million-cubic-feet gas for running all the gas-fired plants while the Raozan plant alone needs 90 million-cubic-feet. But, against such a huge demand the PDB is now getting only 20 to 22 million-cubic-feet, the sources said. PDB Chief Engineer Tulshi Das Saha said shortage in gas supply and dry season have brought the situation to this stage. “If it rains the units at the Kaptai Hydroelectric Plant can be brought into production that would reduce the crises to a some extent,” Tulshi said. “We are expecting power from the 22MW rental power plant at Barabkunda under Sitakunda upazila and 50MW plant of Shikalbaha in April and June this year,” he added. On the other hand, the city dwellers have been facing tremendous water crisis since December 2008 as the salinity was found in the Wasa water while the authorities were supplying insufficient water. Dr Fauzul Karim, a building owner in city's Dewanhat area, said the Wasa supplies a little water compared to the earlier quantity and they cannot run the water pump to supply water in the flats due to power crisis. “The situation is causing suffering to the tenants to a large extent to maintain their household work,” he said. Sources at Chittagong Wasa said now they only can lift 170 million litres per day (mld) instead of regular 200mld due to salinity and power disruption. “We are trying to reduce the salinity through mixing underground water in the Mohora Water Plant and rationing the available water for proper distribution under Chittagong Wasa,” said Wasa Superintendent Engineer Abdul Karim. He said now they can distribute around 40 percent of water to the city dwellers against the demand of 400mld, The situation might improve after the rainfall in March, he added.
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