Power Play
The electrification of households has increased from 18% in 2003 to 95.5% today
We often lament how Nepal has remained the same (or got worse) in 20 years. But we have also seen dramatic progress, including the electrification of households which has increased from 18% in 2003 to 95.5% today.
While the installed capacity of hydropower projects in Nepal is expected to cross 3,000MW this monsoon and projects with 3,200MW more are under construction, much of the power is at the risk of being wasted. India refuses to buy electricity from projects with Chinese involvement, choosing to get its companies to invest as water becomes a strategic commodity.
Excerpts from the report published 20 years ago this week in issue #144 9-15 May 2003:
As evening falls over this small villager in southern Lalitpur, the inky darkness is broken only by the unsteady flickering of kerosene lamps and tuki. But outside, the sky above Kathmandu glows with bright city lights.
Shanti Kala Shrestha, a primary school teacher, misses the convenience of electricity that she had grown accustomed to in her home village. “It’s little wonder that children in this village do so poorly in their exams,” she says. The villagers used to complain, now they are just resentful. “It is sheer negligence on the part of the government. They are happy to sit in Kathmandu with their bright lights, not one cares for small villages like ours,” says Dilli Prasad Ghimire, Shrestha’s neighbour.
With only 30,000 new connections a year, the Nepal Electricity Authority’s (NEA) rate of distribution is outstripped by growing demand. Half of the 525 MW electricity available in the national grid is consumed in Kathmandu Valley alone, and the NEA spends more than 45 percent of its income on purchasing electricity from independent power producers.
From archive material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: www.nepalitimes.com