An energy crisis is any significant bottleneck in the supply of energy resources to an economy. In Pakistan, it dates back to the 1990s and has only become severe from time to time. Since the massive industrialization and modernization, Energy consumption has immensely increased. However, the production is not quite modernized and enhanced the way it should have been.
Causes
First and foremost, the lack of dams is a major setback for the energy crisis. Just a few months back, WAPDA announced that the water capacity has fallen to 30%. Therefore, whenever the water level drops low, so does the electricity’s supply. There are inefficient power plants and no windmills installed. Moreover, electricity theft can be termed as the mother of all evils in this issue. The inefficiencies of the transmission and distribution system cause this theft to take place, in turn increasing the cost of the supplying electricity.
Effects
A major result of the energy crisis is load shedding. This has a grave impact on businesses as factories close, suffer losses and people are unemployed. Proper treatments cannot be provided on time to the patients which may cause deaths. Train stations/ airports are huge consumers of electricity themselves and this way flights get delayed as well. At schools, the students are unable to use computers as even if the generators are available, this causes a huge burden onto them. Gas generators, in turn, are expensive and if the demand for these increases, eventually gas load shedding begins to occur. All this, in turn, causes public unrest. People get frustrated and this leads to strikes which in turn causes the economy to suffer. These public protests under the sun in Karachi often lead to deaths.
Solution
It is high time that Pakistan invests in the construction of more dams since the electricity demand is increasing every year and the current capacity of the dams is not enough in fulfilling that demand. For example, the Diamir-Bhasha dam is a good initiative in helping suppress the issue to some extent. Due to the advantages offered by renewable energy which includes low cost, the world has made great strides in shifting from conventional to renewable energy. Last but not least, measures should be taken to stop electricity thefts, like for example the imposing of punishments on anyone caught while doing so.
