Power crisis hits water sector as supply disrupted in several areas

The daily power cuts, which have taken a massive toll on the everyday lives of the people and broader commercial sector, have now affected the water supply in the country, as several areas are experiencing over 24-hour water supply interruptions, causing severe hardships to consumers. 

According to reliable government sources, the daily power cuts are affecting the smooth supply of water and the prolonged fuel crisis has exacerbated the matter, as the regional sub-stations, which distribute water, have suddenly found themselves in a flux, as they were unable to procure diesel to run their emergency generators to pump water, due to the ongoing fuel shortage. 

Power crisis
As a result, scores of households and business establishments have been found hamstrung for hours and days, due to the unannounced water supply disruptions in the last few days. 
The daily lives of Sri Lankans took a wild turn since February, when the problems they faced with the soaring prices in the economy were exacerbated by the daily power cuts imposed since the middle of that month and the fuel shortages, due to the severe dollar shortages faced by the country.

Along with the diesel shortages to power thermal power stations, the lack of rain to the catchment areas to generate hydropower is the main reason for the power cuts. Hence, no amount of fuel could resolve the current power crisis, without increasing the hydropower capacity, which is at the mercy of rains. 

Apart from the stopgap measures, the authorities are yet to come up with a sustainable solution for the country’s spiralling dollar liquidity crunch. The country’s Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa has dodged Parliament for more than three months, failing to provide an assessment of what the government is doing to mitigate the burden on the people and put the economy back on track. After months of resistance, the Central Bank last week expressed its willingness to work with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), after the government formally requested the IMF assistance via an official letter.

According to economic analysts, with or without the IMF, Sri Lanka at a minimum requires between US $ 3 to US $ 4 billion in immediate inflows of foreign exchange to end the commodities shortages and also to prevent the rupee from free falling.  The rupee fell by approximately 50 percent in the last three weeks against the dollar, since the currency was floated on March 7 but the kerb market rates are said to be hovering at around Rs.360 against a dollar.