It is after all somewhat comforting to learn that the special meeting on energy crisis chaired by Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro the other day, decided not only to revive the Energy Conservation Council, but also vowed to immediately implement the Energy Conservation Policy which the outgoing cabinet had approved two years ago.
Notably the purpose behind the meeting was to take stock of the grim situation resulting from the worsening energy famine and to look for effective ways and means of conservation of power and fuel. As for the likely outcome of the contemplated exercise, it appears to have been vaguely assumed that with appropriate energy conservation measures, a minimum of 25 percent saving in usage of energy would result in a saving of around two billion dollars annually in the short term.
However, a vigorous national campaign needs to be accompanied, if not preceded, by creating enough awareness of what is at stake and how best it can be remedied. Short of this, even the most striking features of its result can get reduced to a mere wish list on paper, hence likely to be ignored by the people.
Be that as it may, the fact remains that the campaigning for thrifty consumption of power and fuel in the midst of deepening energy famine cannot but end up in an exercise in futility unless specifically focused on those indulging in extravagance in its use.
It is to be noted that certain sections of the population, notwithstanding acute shortage of energy in the country, do go rather compulsively for its extravagant consumption. This kind of behaviour can certainly be seen as impinging on the rights of less resourceful compatriots.
Since the contemplated drive of awareness is to focus, particularly, on encouraging use of energy saving bulbs and curtailment of the use of fuel, significantly the effort is already on in terms of distribution of energy saver bulbs free of cost or at concessional prices and promotion of sale of environment friendly solar geysers with certain incentives.
But such efforts can only be a part of an objectively conceived, scientifically planned and aggressively implemented exercise for expeditious enhancement of production in the country along with imports to match the rapidly increasing demand.
While the caretakers' concern about the matter is understandable, regrettably not much thought seems to have gone into the already existing awareness of the general public of the severity of the compounded problem.
Needless to point out, the government's flawed perception would look like a paradox. From casual use of candles to tide over disruption in supply of electricity in homes and at workplaces, gradually shifting to increasing use of more and more powerful generators to encounter longer outages, thanks to long ailing power giants' un-remedied frailty, it's now a large mix of alternatives being resorted to for meeting too frequent exigencies of increasing demand due to robust economic activity the previous government had been constantly boasting of for full five years in its own wisdom.
As the people have gone through the tribulations of uncertainty and switching to various costlier ways to get along, they cannot be justifiably regarded as wanting in awareness of what it means. Had it not been so, marketplaces all over the country would not be droning with the offending noise of generators for most parts of working days, with irritated customers undergoing such excruciating experiences.
Reference, in this regard, may also be made to extensive expansion in the demand for UPS outfits to keep lights on during ghastly spells of load-shedding. With the use of these alternatives, the power starved consumers, traders included, can be seen as indirectly supporting the otherwise unpopular load-shedding strategy.
Viewed in this perspective the urge for country-wide closure of shopping centres by 7.30 pm, will appear to be a cruel joke with traders and industrialists who have yet to recover from the shock of unprecedented losses from lawlessness only recently. It will be recalled that the approach has already backfired once and, from all indications, it may meet with the same fate this time.
However, the idea of all important public buildings such as Prime Minister's Secretariat and Prime Minister's House using solar geysers and energy saver bulbs is worth implementing with an all-out drive for conservation of energy in all government offices and institutions and for all times to come.
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