Pakistan: Rolling Blackout Leaves 220M Without Power
The Facts
On Monday, Pakistan suffered a nationwide power outage that left almost 220M people without electricity including the capital city of Islamabad and Peshawar, which have since had a "limited" number of grids restored.
Khurrum Dastgir, Pakistan's Energy Minister, said a large power surge occurred in the grid's southern area, causing a rolling blackout across the country's network. The outage that began on Monday morning was in the process of being resolved.
The Spin
Narrative A
Pakistan's government understands that the nation is in the turbulent midst of an energy crisis. The government has stepped up its measures to conserve energy and reduce costs. Not only has the government cut back on days in the work week, but they have also devised a complex and comprehensive energy conservation plan. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has increased the country's efforts to conserve energy by 40% to make up for the previous administration's shortcomings.
Narrative B
Pakistan faces several crises surging from all sides. A financial crunch is colliding with both an energy crisis and the severe impacts of climate change. Rolling blackouts, and repeated flood inundations, are just the beginning. Pakistan and its government have become the poster child for what governments should avoid in their preparations for climate resiliency. Until significant investments are made in resilient infrastructure, Pakistan's power grid will continue to be vulnerable to the onslaught of heatwaves, flooding, and cascading blackouts, weather-related or not.
