KATHMANDU, APRIL 19

Vivek Maharjan, a videographer, had to edit and submit the final copy of a wedding video to an overseas client by Sunday evening. However, the power outage caused him to miss his deadline.

'I tried to get the information from the concerned authorities on when the power would come back, but they just kept saying that they had assigned their workers to conduct the maintenance and could not give a definite time.'

Meanwhile, Subash Shrestha from Lubhu who works for a non-governmental organisation, had a virtual meeting on Friday afternoon.

'But the power supply was so irregular that I finally resorted to using my mobile data to attend the meeting,' he said, adding he missed out on some important discussions because of the outage.

These are just representative cases of the problems faced by residents within the valley over the last three-four days because of the power outages following heavy rainfall and storms.

According to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), heavy rainfall and storm affected the electricity infrastructure in most places of the valley, because of which various places are witnessing frequent power outages.

'Over the last few days electricity distribution has been affected as the lightning has struck and obliterated electricity poles and transmitters in several places,' explained Madan Timsina, spokesperson for NEA.

According to him, electricity distribution divisions of the concerned areas have been trying to sort out the issue as soon as possible.

The problem has been sorted out in some areas but in some areas the issue of power outage is yet to be resolved. 'We have received several complaints from consumers that the wind has destroyed electricity poles, electricity wires,' he said, 'While in other places, trees have fallen on electricity wires.

We are trying our best to carry out immediate maintenance.'

Consumers, however, are less than thrilled about the information blackout. Videographer Maharjan said, 'It was so embarrassing to not be able to keep my word to my clients. Because NEA officials could not give a clear picture of what was happening, my clients must have thought I'm so unprofessional.'

Baneshwor, Jorpati, Sifal, Kalimati, Shankhamul, Battisputali, Satdobato and Balkumari are some affected areas in valley. But no record has been compiled on affected areas.

A version of this article appears in the print on April 20, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.