Sunday, February 14, 2010[b]
Heat wave threatens Lagos residents as power supply dips[/b]

SAMUEL AWOYINFA


WHEN the managing director of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, Mr. Hussein Labo, indicated at a ministerial media briefing on the power sector two weeks ago that the country currently generates 2,700MW of electricity, many Nigerians were taken aback.

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Heat wave threatens Lagos residents


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Their bewilderment stemmed from the fact that the country lost 1,000MW between December 2009 and early February this year. The power generated stood at 3,700MW in December 2009.

While Labo attributed the drop in power generation to gas constraints, he however, explained that given the availability of sufficient gas to service the power plants, the country currently had the capacity of generating 5,500MW of electricity.

At least 1.2 billion standard cubic feet per day is required, but investigations during the week revealed that the power stations including the independent power plants had been getting far less than 50 per cent of their gas requirement.

Besides, the gas shortage was reported to have paralysed operations at Olorunsogo, Omotosho, Geregu, Sapele, Afam V and Omoku power stations.

When viewed from all perspectives, the power sector appears jinxed: In eight years or so, the Olusegun Obasanjo administration spent about $16bn on the sector. This did not yield the desired result.

Obasanjo had while responding to a comment from a member of audience during the 17th Annual Trust Dialogue in Abuja claimed that he met the country generating 1,400MW of electricity in 1999 and that he left it at 4,000MW, adding that the Nigeria Integrated Power Project plants, which he started, were yet to be completed by the current administration.

Rather than improving, PHCN has continued to generate more darkness than light.

And with the current humid weather, coupled with the current epileptic electricity power supply, most residents in Lagos are now living with intense heat.

Many of them, who cannot afford to run their generating sets throughout the night to power their electric fans and air conditioners, endure the humidity, hoping that the PHCN would restore power. Most times they are disappointed.

The humidity has become so intense that some residents take their bath two to three times before daybreak. Some have ended up in the hospital with one ailment or the other.

Mr. Adesoye Damilare, a civil servant with the Lagos Island East Local Council Development Authority states that though he does not have the luxury of having to run his generating set throughout the night, he has devised a way of beating the humidity.

He says, "Whenever I discover that I am feeling uncomfortable, I will head for the bathroom and undergo a cold shower. I might do this two or three times before the day breaks.

"Besides, I also watch over my children, once I notice that they are sweating, I equally take them to the bathroom for cold shower. I only do that for them once, because they are children."

A Lagos based journalist, Mr. Josiah Abiola, states that he runs his generating set from early evening till 12am the following day - every day.

"Immediately I put off the generating set, I hit the bed. I have learnt to endure the heat, because I expend N800 on getting 10 litres of fuel on daily basis. If I should run the generating set throughout the night, I would have to spend more. Only because PHCN would not supply us power."

A resident of Ajah, Mr. Osa Eghaghe, says that he showers twice between 12 midnight and 4am.

"Again, since it is only I and my wife, we sleep almost naked these days. The heat is just too much."

Also in this class are Mr. and Mrs. Ade, who equally declare that they have learnt to sleep without putting on their pyjamas.

"Apart from opening our windows ajar, we sleep without putting on anything. We sleep the way God created us," Mr. Ade says.

Mrs. Titilola Ajao, who resides in the New Oko-Oba area of Lagos, explains that the PHCN in that area has subjected them to perpetual darkness - every night. And she claims the intense heat has some unsavoury effect on her three kids.

"Because of the intense heat, my children now spot rashes on their neck region. Every now and then, I apply dusting powder on the rashes to give them some relief," she says.

A civil servant, Miss Bolanle Oki, who also works with the Lagos Island East LCDA, however says she is lucky that the house she resides in is located where there is an access to fresh air.

She says, "I don't really feel much heat because the building where I reside has access to fresh air. I open the windows and the fresh air flows in, naturally."

During the week, some experts linked the hot weather to climate change. Adducing reasons for the hot weather, the Nigeria Meteorological Agency states, "The weather is hot because the relative humidity is unnecessarily high. It is over 80 per cent.

"The cloud being formed is supposed to be shed to the earth in form of rain, but this is not happening. Consequently, the earth could not emit back the heat it absorbs during the day.

"The heat is being blocked down here by the cloud, which has refused to shed. The current weather trend is what researchers have described as unusual climatic change."

While this article was being filed last Thursday, the heavens opened up and it rained in some parts of Lagos and Ogun states.

The chairman of the Lagos State branch of the General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria, Dr. Anthony Omolola, says the rain that fell will definitely have soothing effect on the people and reduce the incidence of people being susceptible to various diseases.

"This is because the dust level will reduce, since a lot of those diseases are air borne," he adds.