A recent survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan reveals that 78 percent of Pakistan's urban citizens faced power shut down in their areas almost every day. Twelve percent of the urban respondents said there is loadshedding in their area once a week and a further 3 percent respondents said that they had a power shut down at least once a month.
Four percent of the respondents said that a power shut down in their area was very rare whereas 1 percent claimed that there is no loadshedding in their area. The remaining 2 percent of the nation-wide urban respondents either gave no response or said that they did not know.
The survey was conducted before the official announcement of the regular nation-wide load shedding due to power shortages during the summer months. When asked as to what they use in order to get some light when there is a power shut down, 29 percent of the respondents said that they use candles, 28 percent said they lit up gas lamps, 19 percent used emergency lights while 5 percent of the urban respondents said they used generators.
On the contrary, 10 percent of the respondents said that they don't use anything while 9 percent said they go out into the open air. The respondents were also asked about their opinion on the major cause behind the frequent power shut downs. Majority, 41 percent of the respondents blamed the inefficiency of Wapda, 28 percent believed that it was due to the shortage of water resources, 16 percent blamed the faulty electric lines while 13 percent of the respondents believed that it was due to the improper maintenance of power cables.
Further 1 percent of the respondents gave other various reasons whereas the remaining 1 percent of the respondents said that they did not know or gave no response. This survey was conducted on a sample of over 1,400 nation-wide urban respondents across all four provinces of Pakistan.
This sample was statistically selected across all ages, income groups and educational levels. The error margin for a sample of this kind is estimated to be plus 5 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.