We face many problems due to power cuts: Kabul residents

KABUL (Pajhwok): Many residents of Kabul city on Tuesday complained about frequent power outages, causing them problems in the cold weather.

However, Da Afghanistan Bareshna Shirkat (DABS) or power utility says Uzbekistan has not been supplying electricity to Afghanistan according to the contract.

Kabul residents say electricity is suspended several times a day, badly affecting their routine life. They ask the government to resolve this problem.

Haj Khan, a resident of Karti Naw area of Kabul city, told Pajhwok Afghan News there had lately been an increase in unscheduled power blackouts.

“We avail electricity for only two or three hours in 24 hours. It is a huge issue. People even cannot recharge their mobile phones.”

Sharifullah, a resident of Ahmad Shah Baba Mena, told Pajhwok power cuts in their area had increased since about a month.

Baheer Khan, a resident of Khushal Khan area, told Pajhwok electricity supply was frequently suspended in these chilly winter days.

He says: “Most people are poor and unable buy wood or coal to warm their houses, they wait for the electricity to heat their rooms.”

He and some other residents of Kabul urged the relevant authorities to solve the electricity problem as soon as possible.

DABS spokesman Hikmatullah Maiwandi told Pajhwok that the electricity situation was not normal in recent nights.

He said there was a problem in Uzbekistan’s power generation network and the country was unable to supply electricity to Afghanistan as per the contract.

That was why frequent outages were carried out, he said, but added they were making efforts to reduce the outages.

He said: “We are busy to activate the thermal power plant to provide regular electricity to the residential areas.”

According to him, most of the imported electricity and locally produced electricity is supplied to industries and then to government offices, but now they want to introduce load-shedding for industries to increase electricity to residential areas.

“With this, the problems of people will be reduced to some extent,” he said, urging consumers to be patient until the problem was solved.

Afghanistan needs 1,200 megawatts of electricity, but the country currently receives only 850 megawatts from domestic and imported sources.

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