MYINT’S family has not been switching off the lights for a few weeks now. This allows them to be alerted whenever the power supply comes back on.
When it does, even in the wee hours of the morning, her mother gets up to cook. Her father starts up the electric pump to collect water from their well.
Myint, who declines to reveal her full name for security reasons, rushes to do the laundry.
Residents in the neighbourhood shout: “Electricity is back!”
“This was what we did before 2010,” the Yangon resident said, referring to the last time Myanmar was under direct military rule.
Summer blackouts are common in Myanmar because the country generates most of its electricity from hydro-power plants that run low on water in the dry season.
This year, however, the situation is especially bad because Myanmar’s political crisis has impaired its ability to generate power.
Soaring fuel prices – worsened by the depreciating kyat and the war in Ukraine – have made it impracticable for many people to use generators. The price of diesel, for example, has roughly tripled since February last year when the military launched a coup.
Analysts do not expect the blackouts to end any time soon.
Myanmar exports most of its gas to China and Thailand via pipeline, and the supplies are a critical source of foreign exchange for the country.
It turned to power plants using imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet high domestic power needs during the hot season.
But the coup sparked a currency crisis that made it too expensive to import LNG. People also refused to pay their power bills in protest against the junta.
“With LNG imports required to be paid in US dollars, and generated power paid for in depreciating kyats, the authorities are unable to afford the costlier LNG imports,” says Rystad Energy’s research analyst Readul Islam. — The Straits Times/ANN
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