The nation just received an electric shock

Just days ago the nation as a whole received a jolt, when it was announced the cost of power (electricity) was going to be raised by an average of 66%.  

Today an average family of four would need at least Rs. 40,000/- to have two square meals a day. Parents also need to spend on their children’s education, travel, clothes, books and tuition fees.  

With government hospitals running out of much needed drugs, parents will also need to purchase medicines at prohibitive rates from private pharmacies. Yet many pharmacies themselves are running short of drugs.  

Medicines for heart and cancer patients, are in short supply. That the prices of these scarce drugs will be costly for the ordinary man is not a breaking news story. A few days ago the media revealed a worker at the cancer hospital who had robbed medicines from that hospital was arrested selling them to desperate patients at Rs. 21,000/-.An average worker earns less than Rs. 35,000/- a month. So how is he/she going to make ends meet. The answer is ‘Blowing in the Wind’’.

A UNICEF report show over 5.7 million people, including 2.3 million children, require humanitarian assistance,, making it among the top ten countries with the highest number of malnourished children.  

The price rise in electricity has also resulted in a further rise in costs of food. So how do the poor deal with this situation?  

In other words our country is facing an imminent child malnutrition crisis and a looming protein deficit as prices of food and protein sources skyrocket due to the ongoing economic crisis..  

Government needs to take quick measures to curb the malnutrition before it turns in to a catastrophe due to skyrocketing prices of the basic essentials.  

At the same time, comes news that a pact is being signed with our giant neighbour India to link our national grids to the Indian grid..  

The older generation will remember that in the 70s and 80s too, we were told how the Lankan national grid was going to be linked to the Indian grid.  

But the circumstances were far different at that time. The Mahaweli scheme was expected to produce power far in excess of our needs, and we, yes Sri Lanka was going to export electricity to India!  
O tempora O mores, the wheel has turned full circle.  

At that time of course, only a small number of households used electric power to light their homes. Most homes, especially in the rural areas used either kerosene or coconut oil lamps.  

Our industrial capacity being negligible, hardly troubling our power sector.  

Than came 1977 and the opening up of the country to persons whom the then president described as ‘robber barons’ and the unplanned opening up of Free Trade Zones with no plans to increase power generation.  

By the late 1990s power cuts became a regular feature. And so it is today, in the middle of a financial crisis and economic meltdown, we now face a situation of not having sufficient fuel to power our generating stations. We also do not have a capacity to purchase kerosene oil to light our homes -kerosene being in short supply as is the case with all fuel and gas in this country.  

While the new pact has probably bought us a little time, we have to make plans as to how we can increase power generation on our own.  

Perhaps we need to think in terms of nuclear power. Russia has made us an offer. But the powers that be have not responded. It is time our leaders put on their thinking caps and promote long-term solutions not only to meet present power requirement, but to bring costs down to levels ‘we the people’ can afford but to meet requirements in the future.  

We have also to make sure that we are not overly dependent on our big brother’s goodwill, which while at some time in the future may reduce costs imposed by the government.  

Additionally we need to make sure that we do not get caught up in a situation West European nations are faced with today., after coming into conflict with Russia -their principle fuel supplier.