Editorial

A fortnight ago, we mentioned in this space how farmers accustomed to a fertilizer subsidy would resist its withdrawal even if it came packaged differently. Similarly, this country, now accustomed to uninterrupted power supply, considered a privilege in countries in this part of the world, went ballistic this week when plunged into the third major power outage in recent months.
Several townships, especially in Greater Colombo, have got immune to intermittent power cuts or sudden drops in voltage all these years. These cuts have been so regular that the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has not bothered with any niceties of informing consumers whose home electrical items have been severely compromised.

That the people were in the dark, so to say, with the reasons unknown was even more annoying than the all-island power failure. It seemed the CEB itself was in the dark as to what had happened. Officials began trotting out different reasons, so much so that the Chairman went public to say, simply; “it was unfortunate”. It led to rumours in a country prone to rumour-mongering that sabotage was the cause.

The President added fuel to the rumour mill by deploying the armed services to guard power installations around the country. Word spread that water supply was going to be affected and nobody was able to give a proper explanation. The Fault Hotline at the CEB had an answering machine that asked irate consumers to check their mains or if their trip switches had gone off — or if they had paid their bills. Its website had no information on the cause of the blackout or the power interruptions schedule. International consultants have long said the CEB does not have a proper arrangement to provide accurate data to one central location. Then, another transformer exploded on Friday giving greater credence to the sabotage theory.

In better managed countries, consumers are kept informed of interruptions and this would be expected here too given that local consumers pay the CEB one of the highest rates in the world for their electricity. Whatever happened to the Consumer Protection Act and the Authority that implements it when it is needed most?

Many argue that this is because of the virtual monopoly the CEB has in the distribution of power. It is seen as a favour granted to the public, not a service offered. Should the CEB be asked, for instance, to credit every consumer with one unit of electricity for every hour of interrupted power, it would have to factor in this cost when it decides to decommission working power plants to save on maintenance costs, at the expense of the consumer. The damage to transformers has been partly placed at poor maintenance. CEB unions will, however, argue that ‘power mafias’ are licking their chops hoping to wade into the industry and fleece the consumer.

The energy issue is a major headache for any Government. That Sri Lanka has had 24 hours of power seven days of the week and the supply footprint extended far and wide even to rural areas today is to the credit of successive Governments. Yet, it has not come without a cost. The Norochcholai coal plant was a dud plant sold to Sri Lanka through unscrupulous agents with connections to the political leaders of the time. These commission agents are doing very well under the present Government as well. That plant has broken down 24 times so far, and each time it takes 3-4 days to get it going even after the time period for repairs. It is best thrown into the Puttalam sea and the agents sent to Welikada.

The award of a recent Rs. 50 billion coal tender is replete with questions. Everything is dark and dirty — like the coal itself. The coal power plant in Sampur has several environmental concerns. Conspiracy theories are already afloat that the Indians are pressing to sell this plant in the East so that the fumes from the plant will blow over to the central highlands of Lanka and destroy the special flavour of ‘Ceylon tea’. Some are campaigning for nuclear energy; clean, cheap and efficient — until an accident occurs. Hydro-power has its limits especially at times of drought and the needs of the farmers having to be supplied and oil is costly (though not now).

It is indeed a dilemma that planners have to work out — for now, and for the future. A strategy of an “energy mix formula” i.e. of less coal, less oil, existing hydro-power, more LNG (liquefied natural gas), more solar power and more wind power seems the way forward.

It must have been a thorough embarrassment for the financial top honchos to be inviting foreign investors to come and buy the local (stained) family silver in the form of non-profit Sri Lankan state ventures at a forum in Singapore when the country they were marketing was plunged into a power failure and its Free Trade Zone had come to a grinding halt.

That would have struck hard the bitter home-truth that all these platitudes about huge development projects on the drawing boards and foreign investors waiting in a queue to come to this country because a new Government is in place becomes a bit of a joke when our basic infrastructure lets us down and is not geared to meet the growing demand for power and energy to fuel such development and investment.

The hand that holds the ladle gets the most
The power cuts this week came at the worst possible time for the Government. Abroad they were urging foreign investors to come, when at home, a Joint Opposition mass protest rally had been preplanned in Colombo. To make matters worse, there was an announcement of a hike in allowances for MPs at a time when the Government was asking the common man and woman to tighten their belts or swallow bitter medicine in the form of new taxes, in the face of a deteriorating economy.

The usual blame game was in full show with the Government blaming the former administration for the current economic woes, and the former President rebutting the charges.

Members of Parliament who are expected to lead by example provided the worst possible example in leadership qualities by adhering to the age-old adage “handa athey thiyanakota kaagen ahannada” (when you have the ladle in your hand whose permission do you need to serve yourself).

The Government was quick to say that this was an all-party decision reached via the Business Committee of Parliament. But in the backdrop of the increasing taxes imposed on the people to ride the economic slump, Opposition parties pulled back from the decision and it was the Government that was left with the ladle in the hand or — the hand in the cookie jar!