Although load-shedding in major cities and towns has come down significantly, it remains severe in rural areas across the country.Residents in the rural areas, who mostly receive power from the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board, said frequent power cuts were seriously affecting their daily lives and businesses.

‘We face load-shedding for 10-11 hours regularly. Every time load-shedding begins, it takes one and a half to two hours before the power supply resumes. Sometimes power cuts begin in the morning and continue until the afternoon,’ Philip Mree, an assistant teacher at Musleh Uddin Chowdhury High School in Tangail’s Madhupur, said.

Kusthia reported that power cuts in the area are also hampering their businesses. Mahfuzar Rahman Shakil, a poultry trader in Kushtia sadar, said that he set up a poultry farm in his village one and a half years ago, but most of the chickens on his farm died due to frequent load-shedding in the past two months.

Shakil said he suffered a loss of around Tk one lakh due to the situation. Rubel Islam, a primary school teacher in Kansat area under Shibganj upazila of Chapainawabganj, said that they were experiencing four to five hours of power cuts every day.

On Wednesday, the Bangladesh Power Development Board produced 12,803 MW against the demand of 12,866 MW, showing only 63 MW of load-shedding.

The production was only 52 per cent of installed capacity of 24,611 MW.

‘We produced over 16,000 MW in a day during the heatwave and irrigation seasons. Now, demand has come down. We are producing power following demand,’ said PDB member for production, SM Wazed Ali Sardar.

BREB member for Distribution and Operation Debasish Chakrabortty claimed that they supplied the amount of power they received from the state-owned Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Limited.

‘If we receive adequate power from the PGCB, we can supply power to all consumers,’ he said.

Asked about their daily average power deficit and demand, he said that they had to face 400-500MW deficit in a day on average.

‘We need 8,000-8500 MW demand in the summer season,’ the BERB member said.

PGCB executive director for operations and maintenance, Md Abdul Monayem Chowdhury, acknowledged they could not distribute adequate power to BERB due to low production.

The Consumers Association of Bangladesh senior vice-president and energy adviser, M. Shamsul Alam, found the explanation of power officials vague.

‘The suffering of people in rural areas continues due to load-shedding. People do not want to hear why they cannot produce and distribute power to rural people,’ he said.

He added that as power sector officials often hide the truth, people no longer believe them.