Ceylon Today Editorial

Electricity is a right

22 September 2016

On Tuesday this newspaper carried an article quoting the power regulator which said that the country may face power cuts in another two years time from now, if the State owned Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB's) low cost generation plan in respect of the institution of such power generation plants during the period 2017-2020 is not implemented.

These proposed plants are essentially to be run by low cost thermal and hydro power, it's said.

This warning from the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka comes on the back of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) abandoning the 500 mega watt Coal Power Project at Sampur which was to be built with Indian aid, allegedly on the back of environmental concerns.

But the question before GoSL is, does it want development or environment protection?

However, is it the choice, in order to counter a looming power crisis in the absence of seemingly timely, low cost power generation allegedly due to the scrapping of the Sampur Coal Power Project, to buy the more expensive 'emergency' power which will be provided to by independent power producers (IPPs) in such a situation?

The premise of GoSL's actions or inactions, in this instance 'electricity power', revolves round accountability, or more precisely the lack of it, or possibly the total lack of it.

Nonetheless, in as much as GoSL is accountable to the people of this country in respect of the environment, it's also accountable to ensure that the public is provided with uninterrupted power supply at the least possible cost, in respect of the provision of this service.

Electricity is not only needed to light up homes and all that, it's also needed to light up factories, offices and also to power certain machinery required in the production process. Hospitals, certain life saving apparatus employed in similar such sanatoriums also require electricity to ensure that patients who need such life support machines, and in the case of prematurely born babies who live in electricity powered incubators, don't die, due to the lack or the absence of such power.

Electricity cost incurred for the public good by GoSL, also need to be answered to, by the State. Is it the least cost electricity generated that is being provided? If not, why not?

If electricity is absent, factories and offices too may not be able to function. And if such institutions are unable to operate due to no fault of theirs, employment generation is affected. And if job generation takes a hit, that causes civil unrest and instability in the country.

Sri Lanka suffered two southern insurgencies and one northern insurgency (which also spread to the East, because it was the Tamils who dominate the North and are in sizeable numbers in the East who engineered such an insurgency) in the past; the root cause of it was youth unemployment, be it in the manufacturing, services and agriculture sectors, or in two or all of these three sectors.

These three insurgencies, the last of which was defeated only seven years ago, bled the country nearly white. They virtually killed the flower of Sri Lanka's youth; caused immense destruction to other lives and property; left with them scars, most of which are emotional and permanent in nature among some of the survivors and also expedited a 'labour' and brain drain.

In the midst of these electricity related developments ('retardatory developments' may be a more apt phrase to describe such events), GoSL and the Power and Energy Ministry have seemingly chosen to maintain a 'stoic' silence.

The problem is, especially in the Sri Lankan context, politicians once in power, choose to live on ivory towers, surrounded by hangers on , 'yes' men and bootlickers, totally divorced from reality.

They will suffer no power crisis because, if that actually takes place they will have generators, employed at public expense to provide them with power, be it to illuminate their homes or make their air conditioners (A/Cs) run, while the ordinary citizens who voted them into power, leave alone living in a permanent state of sweat because they have no money to buy A/Cs, or even if they do have, will not be able to pay their inflated electricity bills because of A/C consumption for a sustained period of time, will have to live in darkness, till the next rains come to dispel the current drought and once more provide power to the country, led by hydro-electric energy.

Or, otherwise, GoSL may provide emergency power if the country is overcome by such a contingency, by employing the more expensive IPPs, but at what cost to the exchequer and to the public at large? Electricity, nay least cost electricity, is a fundamental human right, it's not an option.