Nepal blames low rainfall for rolling power cuts

Jan 21 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - dpa, Berlin

Nepal on Friday said it has had to cut power supplies for 12 hours per day due to falling levels in the reservoirs which feed the country's hydroelectric power plants.

The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) said the cuts, which have been in place since Sunday, were necessary as the water levels in the rivers were falling and rain was still lacking.

The outages could rise to 14 hours daily in the coming weeks, said Chiranjivi Sharma, director of the NEA's system control department.

The power grid has been subject to rolling blackouts this week, with staggered six-hour power cuts to different parts of the country twice a day.

Nepal produces on average half the electricity it needs. It imports some from India, but is even so unable to meet domestic demand of about 800 megawatts, according to Pradip Gangol, executive manager of the Independent Power Producers' Association of Nepal.

"There is more rain in summer," he explained, which allows the country's hydroelectric dams to produce around 780 megawatts. But in winter, Nepal's dry season, "the level goes down so we can only produce about 250 megawatts," he said.

In recent years "the climate change has contributed to the receding water level," making the problem worse than usual, he said.

And not all of the electricity produced finds its way to paying consumers, as "25 per cent of the generated electricity also gets stolen or illegally used," Gangol said.

Nepal is no stranger to power shortages. During the 2008-2009 winter, electricity was cut for as much as 18 hours out of every 24.

Efforts to increase the country's generation capacity were put on hold during the decade-long civil war which ended in 2006, and have remained pending ever since due to political obstacles.

At least 43 people have been reported dead over the past three weeks in the southern plains alone, as the country is in the grip of an unusually cold winter.

The government has dispatched firewood to the affected area.

The bad weather has forced schools and airports to close, and the power cuts have started to affect businesses and hospitals.

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