Bangladesh is a country where load shedding is a common thing. Few years back in time it was not that much developed country but the time passed and gradually becoming a developed country.
During the month of may and June, 2023, whole area of Bangladesh was facing the problem of electricity. The biggest reason of this load shedding was shortage of Coal & Gas Supply, there were sometimes electricity in the cities but only for 2/3hrs and again the load shedding will appear. The situation is even worse in village areas. I heard from my father that people those lived in the village they were facing load shedding of approximately 2,500 MW at different times. Well, worsen situation when MW was going to shut down after few days due to the shortage of coal moreover, there was no alternative way to handle the situation at that time.Also, the first unit was closed down on 25 May.
The country is also facing a shortage of other types of things that was required for electricity generation but it was impossible and it caused the load shedding to be stable for long hours. We were suffering a lot because of the temperature which was reaching as high almost 43 degree in some areas of Bangladesh. We had to face load shedding in the hot weather and it was gonna continue for many days which is not fixed. The power outage unexpectedly lasted for many days.
The first night we had to use hurricane(fuel lamp) but the light was not enough for me to Focus on my studies and after that I felt like that someone was making a grill of mine inside a oven. Our fridge stayed cold enough for about few days because the electricity won’t last long enough to keep it cold. The foods were rotten which was devastating. Also, the electric oven could not be used to make the food hot or bake anything. When while sleeping the electricity disappears I would wake up because it would make me sweat a lot. Nights were getting horrible each day and it was difficult to sleep in bed while drenched in sweats. I slept on the floor for few days but my body would be feeling the pain in the morning. Everyday I would be feeling tired and sleepy which was making my body weak.
These situations were very much worse when some people leaving stoves on during load shedding and later on they find them burned some has faced death which is very disheartening, I felt goosebumps.
Slums in Dhaka people who lived there were suffering a lot they hardly had any electricity at night. After having a laborious day they can’t get enough sleep time because of the weather and the temperature was increasing highly at nights.
Another loss of mine was when I lost sponsorship due to load shedding. Because I was playing for a esports team and they needed me but most of the times I would go offline otherwise even if I had Mobile Data my phone would get heated because of using Mobile Data and it would be laggy to play when it’s heated. Sometimes after finishing the matches it would feel like I could make an omelette on my phone. Sometimes I would go offline when I had to finish my opponent and I sadly can’t pause an online game where everyone is playing live. Trust me it’s the most frustrating thing to me because I am a gamer and dying just because of load shedding is a silly thing like I didn’t even get the chance to fight back because I went offline.
For real without power outage life is difficult. After few days in the month of June the Prime Minister managed to supply electricity in our country again even though other countries denied to help. In recent time the load shedding appears everyday at a time for 2hrs in a day or night. But in May and June it was a month full of struggle. I am glad those bad days has passed.
During my childhood I would pray for the electricity to be gone everyday at nights around 8/9 pm so my friends would come and we would play hide and seek or catch try to catch fireflies and my grand-mother would say not to catch them and free them but in recent time I haven’t seen any. Moreover, the elder would put on discussions and gossip about various things, everyone used to have fun and enjoy others company. When the electricity would come back then everyone would go back to their houses. After growing up facing the load shedding is the most annoying thing that could ever happen to me. But this outage of electricity made me spend time on beneficial things instead of scrolling on Mobile and also some quality time with my parents.
But I still don’t like the fact of the load shedding because many criminal activities take places because of it and not safe for the girls who works at night. The road lights will not be working which is scary. Robbers can easily rob someone or someone can get kidnapped. Anyways, I have Nyctophobia can’t stay in the darkness for a long time. I always have to sleep with the lights on otherwise nightmares would be knocking at my door. When the load shedding happens even now my mom or dad would come off running towards my room because I would be panicking unable to breathe it feels like everything is going blank and the darkness will never let me out.
If the government always take steps in correct time then I think most of the problems will be solved and the citizens won’t have to suffer. Like they should try to keep or find alternative ways for every situation.
THANKS FOR READING💖
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- Some Photos taken from Canva and edited with Canva
- All content are mine unless otherwise noted
