Shed a tear for load shedding

You may curse the non-stop rain of the monsoon season in Nepal, but at least you don’t have to curse in darkness. The rains fill up the reservoirs that power the hydroelectric turbines that generate most of Nepal’s power. But, in October, the monsoon season ends and the reservoirs recede meter by meter each time the floodgates are opened to generate another megawatt of electricity. To manage this precious potential energy, the government begins the process of “load shedding” (rotating neighborhood power cuts) at the end of summer in hopes of conserving enough water to get the country through the dry season until the monsoons return in the Spring.

When we arrived at the end of July, the outages were only a few hours per day and were hardly noticeable, but now they’re up to 63 hours per week: 10 hours per day 6 days per week, and 3 hours per day 1 day per week.

Several nights each week we find ourselves sitting in the darkness sharing a rechargeable flashlight, reading to pass the time. Last night we pitched in the towel early and went to bed at 7:30 pm. Of course, I woke up at 1 am and am now writing this at 3 am to take advantage of my “power window.”

The nighttime temperature has been dropping to the mid to high 30’s (Fahrenheit) and without central heating the temperature in our apartment has been dipping into the low 50’s at night. So, we’re spending more and more time huddled in sweaters in the dark. We need to count our blessings, though, because the bad winter in the U.S. has knocked out power to over a million people the past few weeks. Those poor folks would absolutely love to be sitting in 50 degree houses right now!

The problem has been exacerbated this year by flooding of the Koshi River in the southern part of the country which knocked out transmission lines bringing in power from India. Someone told me that the monsoons dropped less than an average amount of rain this year, so the reservoirs aren’t as full as usual. The government is trying to get more hydroelectric projects going, but it will be a few years or more before they’re up and running.

Nepalis take load shedding in stride along with all of the other infrastructure problems they face. On moonless nights it’s difficult to walk on the dark streets without running into people, so we carry a flashlight or penlight with us. The only other illumination comes from the headlamps of speeding motorbikes and cars. Some of the larger restaurants and shops have generators, but most just light candles.

Even at 45 hours per week the outages were manageable if you planned around them, but now at over 63 hours they are impossible to ignore. In early December we planned a Christmas party for the evening of Dec. 21st, assuming we’d have power that night based on our 45 hour load shedding schedule. Then, just a few days ago (four days before the party), the new 63 hour schedule went into effect with the power set to go off from 4:30-8:30 pm – and our party starts at 6:00 pm.

So, instead of cursing the darkness, we went out and bought a dozen large candles.

Graduation day at Kathmandu University

Sorry for the nearly month-long delay in posting anything. They’ve been keeping me extra busy at Kathmandu University with lectures, presentations, and research.

Just a few photos here of the graduation ceremony held in mid-November for the 2008 K.U. graduates. It was delayed several months in order to accommodate the schedule of the speaker, a former President of India. The ceremony was held in a huge tent set up on the soccer field that held at least 2000 people.

The photos below are of the graduates from the Biotechnology Department who dragged me into a few pictures with them. The family portrait is with Deepak and Prajwal, two of the M.S. students who went to Langtang with us.

Hopefully before Christmas we’ll have some good photos from the holiday party we’re hosting for all the Fulbright students and faculty, and our Nepali colleagues and friends. After Christmas we’ll be going to Chitwan National Park near the Indian border to ride elephants and look at crocodiles and rhinos. There should be some good photos from that trip posted by New Year’s Day. And then, come Jan. 9th, we’re headed back to the U.S.