Lessons from load-shedding

My friend Sally, an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD) volunteer in Kathmandu, put together this article on lessons that expat volunteers in Nepal have learnt about load-shedding. She has kindly let me copy-paste it to my blog so that you guys can also see what life sans-electricity can be like... sometimes pretty dangerous!

Take it away Sally:

Load-shedding is the practice of scheduling power outages across a city or country. Nepal, despite having the world’s third-greatest capacity to generate hydroelectric power, is one of the countries which most employs load-shedding as a means of cutting electricity consumption. As Kathmandu contains the largest number of electricity consumers in the country, it is most affected by load-shedding: apparently, this city has the world’s longest and most frequent power cuts.

Why do the statistics between energy production and energy consumption not match up? In typical shortsighted Nepali style, electricity is generated in the country and then sold to India, which India then sells it back to Nepal at inflated rates, which the government cannot afford to pay. In order to manage the cost, the government severely restricts electricity availability. 

Kathmandu is currently up to 88 hours per week without power. This number will continue to increase until monsoon season (June/July) when more water will start running into the dams. Still rather a long way away!

To explain the delightful phenomenon of load-shedding to the uninitiated, I asked the other volunteers for their input. The words penned below thus stem from a collaborative effort, which illustrates both the difficulties of living without power and the sense of humour necessary to survive it…

Sally: Well done on remembering to stock candles; next time, try to remember the matches as well.

Dani: Some things are better done with torches rather than candles - torches are a good way of ensuring you don’t set your hair alight whilst making your bed.

Liz: You should all remember that when you go to bed promptly at 9pm when the power goes off that it’s easier to flick the switches off at 9pm rather than at 3am when the power comes back on.

Danielle: hehe - following from Liz - No matter how hard you try to go back to sleep pulling the covers over your head to avoid the blinding 3am light, you might as well just get up and turn them off because sleep will never come...

Dani: Also, head torches are your best friend when having to go to the squat toilet during load shedding.

Steve: DONT COOK FROZEN CHICKEN IN THE DARK!!! [Sally’s note: Steve gave himself salmonella performing just this act].

Jess: Half-straightened hair is not a good look. Half-baked muffins are also less than appealing. {Incredibly jealous that the guys in Kathmandu have hair dryers/straighteners... though perhaps mostly jealous that they have somewhere to bother doing their hair for..}

Carly: I’m with Jess - half-dry/straightened hair sucks.

Biggest frustration: If by your watch it’s 4:57pm and you think you’ve still got a precious 3 minutes to dry/tame the second half of your hair... think again! (I see cartoon images of the evil NEA (Nepal Electricity Authority) government employee throwing his head back in laughter as he flicks the giant switch a fraction too early...)

Another point to emphasise the greater inconvenience faced by the ladies...

Note to self when going out - choosing your outfit, putting on your face on etc by the soft forgiving glow of candlelight, does not always look as good under generator-powered fluorescent lighting in Thamel [the nightlife area of Kathmandu]. 

Liz: Though there’s nothing sexier than a candlelit shower (if you can get it to run hot water).

Dani: I never have hot water (FYI I live outside the Kathmandu Valley!) so I always have a sponge bath - this is definitely do-able by head torch if you’re desperate. [Dani lives in Bharatpur, a town in Chitwan province - nothing happens there!] {I am offended by the comment that nothing ever happens in Bharatpur... I'll have you know that I watched THREE episodes of Home Improvement tonight (whilst sitting in the dark eating my dinner... ok, perhaps it's not the most exciting place on earth :-))}

Pretty much I am the world's biggest supporter of head torches!

Matt: OK. Way too many women talking about bathing and make-up problems here.

Let’s add: Not remembering to pump water up to the tanks but only realising this AFTER you’ve gone to the toilet. Yes that’s right, imagine that. [Many of the houses here use ground water, but this water requires electricity to pump it to the top of the houses from whence it then flows through the pipes].

Jono: Make sure you choose a restaurant that has a generator. Half-cooked food is not so great.

Steve: Problem with the candlelight showers is that we have gas water, so the presence of open flame in the same room as a strong scent of gas is a constant source of concern.  

Pix: God you will never let this go will you? This really destroys my reputation as a cooking Frenchman.

Oh well.

So we have some people over for dinner […] The darkness of the kitchen is made easier to handle by the romantic(ish) candles and the French food that we are having for starters. I am cooking a big Westernized spaghetti dish, and we all sit down and tuck in. Wine is getting drunk, jokes are being told, all is good. A surprised Danielle suddenly says "ouh" and removes a little clay dish from her pasta plate, it was a candle holder. Sarah finds the burnt out wick in hers.

Sally: On the cooking front - Never cook peas during load-shedding, because in the cold, hard light of day you will see them smushed all over the flat.

Tina: This is a mix of lessons learned from different people over a few years:

always, always leave things plugged in and charge as soon as you get home,

never go to work when you have electricity at home

switch everything on when you have electricity at home, everything at once

AND

appreciate having electricity in your home country

Sally: In conclusion, there is one final and very important lesson: Even though the power is off most of the time, NEVER just assume it is. There is nothing more annoying than realising after hours of scrabbling around with your headtorch on, that you could in fact have just flicked the light switch.