Kon Chan : Electricity supplies in Rangoon have been fickle for the past decade, with the exception of an annual 2 month-long period during rainy season, when Burma is fueled by hydropower. Rangoon citizens say that the power scarcity worsened after Burma’s capital was moved to Naypyidaw in 2005, and many fear the situation will continue to decline.
City residents fretted over their powerlessness to IMNA’s reporter, explaining that over the past 10 years, they have never had any way of knowing how long an electricity outage might last, or when the shortage situation might worsen. According to Rangoon residents, electricity supplies hit an all-time low after the September 2007 Saffron revolution.
Following the upheaval, the Burmese government instituted a “rotation system” for providing electrical power to city residents. After the conclusion of the rainy season, power is provided to different sections of the city in shifts. Section A of the city receives power for a few hours starting at 6 am, Section B at 12 noon, and Section C at 4pm. Unfortunately, power often fails to arrive at its allotted hours, but residents informed IMNA’s reporter that they prefer the current system to the totally unpredictable power supplies of the pre-2007 era, when electricity would often appear and vanish without warning.
“Sometimes, families would be at work when the electricity would come. They couldn’t use the electric pump to get water, because the electricity would be out when they arrived at home. Then they would have trouble, because there was no water to use, or electricity to cook with, so they would have to buy charcoal. Many got tired of this, and sometimes people would hire workers to get water for them when the electric pump was working, and bring it to their homes” explained a 40 year-old trainer from Tarmwe township in Rangoon.
Electricity, despite its central importance in national productivity, is being denied to the less-developed nation of Burma. The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) sells the country’s hydropower, instead of using this resource to provide Burma’s people with electricity.
Newspapers owned by the Burmese government publish stories every day about the number of hydropower plants and dams being built inside the country, but often these news stories are only sign of such energy sources that Rangoon’s citizens ever see. “Don’t touch newspaper. [It] will give you an electric shock due to lots of megawatts”, joked a newspaper seller to IMNA’s reporter, hawking his wares to a darkened teashop in Rangoon during a power outage.
Irregular electricity supplies have a devastating effect upon a variety of Rangoon businesses; internet shops and cafes have been particularly victimized. Many rely on generators to keep their businesses afloat. Unfortunately, poor internet connections in Rangoon often mean that internet shops are unable to draw sufficient customers to earn back the cost of a generator, and internet shops frequently go out of business following an investment in a generator.
According to a staff member from an internet shop in Kyout-ta-dar township within the city, “It is convenient when more customers use the internet to use the electricity machine [generator], but often there are less than 3 customers using the internet [in the shop] because of the bad connection. This internet shop is sorry that many times, we to have to say to the customers to leave the shop, because we have only 1 or 2 customers. Many internet shops are closed, because the cost of gasoline [for the generators] is lost during times of bad connection.”
The irregular distribution of electricity has led to increased reliance on generators; often it is the noisy sound of generators echoing through the city that welcomes travelers to Rangoon. Upped generator use has also caused alarm among the international environmentalist community; increased carbon dioxide levels, caused by machines used to support businesses, only contributes to the growing problem of global warming.
As the new capital Naypyidaw, with its population of less than 1 million people, stays alight with electricity for 24 hours a day, the electricity supply in Rangoon only worsens.
