Patients gasp for breath as power cuts hit hospital services
Businesses demand to know how long they must suffer losses
Restaurant owners were forced to close their doors or throw out food while at rural hospitals patients struggling for breath had to wait long hours to use nebuliser equipment during the island-wide power cuts.
The cuts, which only selected areas such as Colombo left untouched, caused widespread anger over financial losses among businesses ranging from shops, fishmongers, butchers, cafes, barbers and vehicle service centres.
Cuts triggered by Sri Lanka’s backup power source, the Norochcholai coal- fired plant’s breakdowns in boosting the main hydro power supply took businesses and residents by surprise, blacking out areas across the country unexpectedly three to four times a day a week ago. Scheduled cuts since then cause blackouts for three hours in the daytime and an hour at night, across the country.
Tourist hotels and guides said Sri Lanka was getting a bad rap from tourists as small hotels and guesthouses failed to provide services during the blackouts but a manager of a hotel in Chilaw explained the problem for hoteliers.
Hotels have to use generators during the power cuts, manager Gihan Silva said. “Even if there is only one guest occupying one room in the hotel, we have to turn the entire generator system on, which powers the whole hotel. Therefore, even for one guest, there is a huge cost," Mr. Silva said.
“Using generators is expensive and we can’t charge our customers extra when we have to use them, so we are bearing the additional cost,” said another manager of a small hotel in Hikkaduwa. He said restaurants and food outlet owners were finding it difficult to serve fresh meals and desserts as their fridges and freezers do not function for hours.
The Director of the Murutalawa Rural Hospital in the Kandy district, Dr. Ravindra Jayaratne, said because of the power cuts patients who came to the hospital for treatment such as nebuliser administration and electrocardiogram ( ECG) procedures not only suffered due to being left untreated but also wasted time and transport costs.
“The patients have to sit and wait in pain until they are either taken to another hospital or until the power comes back on,” Dr. Jayaratne said.
Lack of lighting during power cuts meant that sometimes certain procedures had to be carried out by candle light, he added.
A doctor in the Meethirigala Rural Hospital in the Gampaha district said dental work could not be performed because there was no power for the equipment.
Pharmacy employees are worried they cannot maintain the necessary cool temperature that certain drugs need, explaining that some medicines lose efficiency after exposure to heat.
A young fish vendor, at Thalangama Koswatte, 24-year-old Asanka Samapath Wickremeratne, said he was forced to throw away fish at the end of the day because his refrigerators lacked power for hours every day.
“Customers don’t buy fish when they learn our fridges have been switched off for hours at a stretch. The fish we sell doesn’t look fresh,” he said.
He used to keep his shop open until 9 p.m. but due to the 7.30 p.m. power cut the shop now closed at about 6.30 p.m.
Hair salon operators are despondent as they cannot use hair driers, electric razors and curling irons during the blackouts.
Despite spending Rs. 800 a week on a generator, Rajagiriya, salon owner Udayange Ruwan Buddika, 31, said he had fewer customers as people stayed away thinking the salon would be closed due to the power cuts.
“We have power cuts from 11.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. That is the peak time for daytime customers. Then power is again disconnected for an hour from 7.30-8.30 p.m. It is useless to keep the generator on at night because customers won’t come to the salon when the streets are dark,” he said.
“I have four employees and I have to pay their wages, but we receive less income as we are forced to close early,” Mr. Buddika said.
Mechanics at vehicle garages and service stations are also despondent, saying the power cuts forced them to either suspend work for three hours during the day or temporarily close down garages altogether.
“Without electricity, the hydraulic pumps used to lift vehicles and the high-pressure water pumps for vehicle servicing cease to function,” said Jayantha Tillekeratne, who works at a small service station in Thalangama, Koswatte.
“A few days ago, when unannounced power cuts took place. a vehicle that had been lifted for a service remained stuck on top of the hydraulic pump for three hours until power was restored,” he said.
People who are determined to get their vehicles serviced stay queued up for hours but are sometimes forced to leave and attend to other business as the power cuts drag on, and this brings down the garage’s earnings, he said.
Members of the public such as Kalutara resident Rohan Herath are resentful that residents within Colombo and Galle city limits, and around Parliament have uninterrupted power while disruptions hit other areas.
“Sri Lanka never had a power generation policy or planning for the future regardless of which party was in power,” said Mr. Herath, 62, a retired government official. “The electricity board must be ashamed to always offer excuses about breakdowns at the Norochcholai power plant.
“Aren’t there other power plants capable of providing backup power when hydro power generation is reduced? Why does the government keep spending on a faulty power plant as the backup power source for the country?” Mr. Herath demanded.
“The government can use hydro power in the rainy season and solar power in the dry season,” he said.
Midwife H. M. Sumithra, who lives at Pelawatte, Battaramulla, said the cuts made it difficult to care for her family.
“I have to do my rounds in many areas, so in the morning I prepare meals for the family and leave for work, then return home in the evening to do the laundry and other chores, but when there are night- time power cuts I cannot do my housework,” she said.
Three- wheeler driver Sunil Pathiranasinghe, 51, said when he returns home after a hard day’s work he looks forward to unwinding and having dinner or watching the news on television, but it is just then when the power cuts occur.
“These days my wife is in the process of cooking when the power cuts take place at 7.30pm – then our meals become late. Tired, sweaty and hungry we wait till 9pm to have our meals,” he said.
The unannounced power cuts in previous weeks caused losses for bakers too.
“Most bakers had to throw away a lot of their products half-baked as the electric ovens stopped working when the electricity board suddenly started cutting power to various areas,” All- Island Bakers Association Chairman N. K. Jayewardene said.
Even the scheduled power cuts affect business as they come at peak times for bakers, he said.
Lanka Electrical Workers General secretary Ranjan Jayalal claimed corruption in past and current administrations was partly to blame for the problem.
“The Power and Energy Act has a clause that enables ministers to engage in private purchase of electricity without tenders in cases of emergency, so ministers can exploit that clause and get commissions for buying electricity from private companies,” he said.