SL to face severest drought in 40 years

Sri Lanka was experiencing the most severe dry weather in 10 years and unless there was no ample rain in the next couple of weeks it would be the severest drought in 40 years, Power and Renewable Energy Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said yesterday. Minister Siyambalapitiya addressing a seminar conducted at the BMICH to educate local government authorities on saving of power in a drought said President Maithripala Sirisena’s attention has been drawn to pay a compensation of Rs. 10,000 a month to each farmer family if the ongoing drought situation continued further. “Using electricity sparingly is not only your responsibility but a national duty as the entire country is affected due to the drought situation. The CEB is struggling to supply power round the clock and not to impose a power cut while we are facing a disaster. I have already submitted four Cabinet papers with the proposals on how we could avoid a power cut and save power,” Minister Siyambalapitiya said. He said the total available combined capacity of power was 3,900 MWS and at peak hour Sri Lanka used 2,400 MWS. However, the cheapest and most environment friendly hydro power generation stands at only 20% of the total demand.

Deputy Power and Renewable Energy Minister Ajith P Perera said if and when power consumers followed the instructions and guidelines issued by the CEB, they while saving electricity also doing a service to the nation. It will also bring their monthly tariff bill to a more affordable level.

“One of the best ways to keep your monthly tariff bill low is to use LED bulbs. Before the LED bulbs came to market the consumers used CLF bulbs to save power. Now, using LED bulbs was more energy friendly and save 60% of power than the filament bulbs,” he said.

Deputy General Manager of the CEB, Bandula Boralessa said a circular has been sent to all local government bodies to switch on street lights in their respective areas one hour late and switch off one hour before to save power as 485,000 street lights in the country maintained by local government bodies were a huge burden to the CEB as well as to the local government bodies.