Tirinkot residents without electricity for 2 weeks

TIRINKOT (PAN): Residents of this capital city of central Uruzgan province complain that continued power outages have crippled their routine life over the past two weeks.

“The situation has created many problems for people of the city. We lack clean drinking water; we draw it from wells with the help of power generators,” said Sharafuddin, a resident.

He said women and children were the worst sufferers. Many children were suffering from different kinds of seasonal diseases due to the hot weather, he claimed.

“Unlike government departments, people pay electricity bills regularly. Non-payment of bills has halted power supply to all consumers,” said Asadullah, another resident.

He alleged government officials kept their own interest supreme, doing nothing to alleviate people’s suffering. The provincial water and energy department was unable to provide citizens with electricity despite charging 30 afghanis per kilowatt, he said.

But the energy department head, Samiullah Sharafat, insisted generators were used to supply electricity to Tirinkot residents. The generators belong to the power and energy department of southern Kandahar province.

He said fuel consumption cost 800,000 afs per month, while their income was 600,000 afs. The director criticised the Brekhna Company for Uruzgan consumers inflated bills. He said the company sold electricity for 5 afs per KW in other provinces, but the same amount of electricity was sold to Uruzgan people for 30 afs.

He also said the Provincial Reconstruction Team was assisting the province in other spheres of life, but it did not pay attention to the electricity problem.

Provincial council chief, Amanullah Hotaki, blamed the ministry concerned for failing to resolve the issue.

“The Uruzgan energy department does not send us monthly report, the bills realised do not reach the ministry in time,” said the Kandahar water and energy director, Fazal Ahmad. They paid 600,000 afs to the Uruzgan power department last week to buy fuel.

myn/ma/mud