Now, I can’t iron my shirt and pants. I can’t go to office like. My boss will kill me.”

“Oh! I forgot to recharge my cellphone. Now, I can’t receive important calls.”

“Sorry Sir, I was late because my mother couldn’t cook food on time.”

These words have become very common nowadays because of the problem of load shedding. No one can better define the term load shedding like we Nepalis. You go to the streets and ask anyone, and you will certainly find a advanced definition of load shedding than in Oxford Learner’s Dictionary.

Nepal, a rich source of water resources, is suffering from load shedding. Nepalis defied the government, the governing system but we never worked hard to overcome load shedding. The electricity produced is not enough to the demands of 25 million people.

Industries form the base of development. But this base is weakened by load shedding. Running big industries through generators is not possible, especially during periods of fuel crisis. It results in less production of goods and industries suffer from a huge deficit.

The public also suffers from rapid price hikes. So, in this situation there are more possibilities of these industries shutting down.

Peace and security of our country also remains in darkness during load shedding hours. Robbers, thieves, murderers are on the prowl during load shedding hours. So, no one is safe.

But, only one factory is flourishing nowadays — the candle making factories. We have also been lucky to have candle light dinners for more than three days a week.

Nepal has not even been able to generate one per cent of its total electricity generation potentiality. This is because of our habit of depending upon others. Our country is not able to produce skilled manpower, technicians and materials required for the production of enough hydro-electricity. On one hand we are not constructing enough hydro-electricity plants and on the other, the already constructed hydroelectric plants have been ruined.

We should not depend upon foreign countries and agencies for generation of electricity. Technical and vocational education should be promoted to produce skilled manpower. We should also not waste electricity and should use less electricity in order to help the government to solve and change this poor tradition of load shedding. Then only this problem will be solved and we will be able to spend a bright life.

— Aashish Thapa,

Class X, Suryodaya Sai

Secondary School