It’s well known that Bangladesh and Pakistan suffer from chronic power shortages. Those two countries simply do not produce enough electricity to meet the demand of their respective populations. Along with that quagmire, Bangladesh, particularly its capital, Dhaka, has been suffering a terrible water shortage. This is due, principally, because of the prior electricity shortage. (There’s been little attention to this issue in the mainstream Bangladeshi press; perhaps that little regard stems from the very nature of the chronic problem.)
There are political spill-overs here. Though power cuts are surely to blame, inefficient conservation policies and political inefficiencies–think corruption–have much to do with the differential access to clean water and other resources for individual and local, social well-being.
Now though there exists a condemnable dearth of international political reportage on Bangladesh, Al Jazeera English has again stepped up to fill that void. Its reportage is run through with the color, noise and life of Dhakas overwhelmed people.
Pakistan’s power and water shortage is in its own rights a devastating problem that, might soon develop into a full-blown crisis, run through with political disruption, stasis or liquidation. But, and a more evocative feel for the dry days and dark nights ahead, read the work of the FPA’s own Pakistan blogger Bilal Qureshi, here and here.