Despite rain sending the ongoing heatwave on the back foot, load-shedding worsened on Wednesday, further exposing the extent of trouble the economic crisis has put Bangladesh into.
With 27,515MW of installed power generation capacity, Bangladesh fell short of 2,285MW of electricity to meet the demand of 15,450MW at midnight on Wednesday, the peak load-shedding hour of the day.
There was 1,154MW of load-shedding even when the power demand dropped to 13,950MW at 11:00am on Wednesday.
The daily electricity generation report released by the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh revealed that all eight divisions witnessed load-shedding throughout Wednesday, with the Dhaka Division recording the highest average load-shedding of 255MW.
抖阴精品 correspondent in Rajshahi reported that in some parts of the northern districts, people were supplied power for only four hours on Wednesday.
鈥楶ower stayed for 15 to 30 minutes before going out for four to five hours,鈥� said Nayeb Ali, a college student at Pukhuria village under Shibganj upazila in Chapainawabganj district.
The power supply was received only at night, he said.
Rajshahi needed the power supply mostly during the daytime because the air temperature in the area reached 39.6C with a mild to moderate heatwave sweeping over the division.
The heatwave was also sweeping the districts of Jashore, Chuadanga, Kushtia, Magura, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, and Tangail.
The heatwave felt far more unbearable than the air temperature indicated because of the high moisture鈥檚 presence. At 6:00pm on Wednesday, the moisture content was 89 per cent.
With such a high level of moisture present in the air, health experts warned that air temperatures exceeding 35C could be fatal for humans and animals as well.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department does not release data on the real feeling of temperature considering humidity, for there are many variables such as the speed and direction of wind involved in it.
Still, a heat index of ICDDR,B, also known as the apparent temperature, revealed that the real feeling of living at 35C with 85 per cent humidity could be 60C.
This high temperature could result in death within minutes, health experts warned, unless there was enough arrangement to cool off the body.
The optimum temperature at which the body can control its heat is 35C.
鈥楲uckily, there is not much work in the field at the moment. Otherwise, people would have dropped dead in large numbers,鈥� said Ziaur Rahman, a farmer of Balanagar village under Bagmara upazila in Rajshahi.
He said that people in his area were severely sleep-deprived as they could not stay in bed for long in this humid heatwave, often taking breaks and a stroll around, though it helped a little.
The BMD said that the heatwave might continue to abate through today. On Tuesday, the heatwave was sweeping over 31 districts, which were reduced to 15 on Wednesday.
An ongoing economic crisis has seriously limited Bangladesh鈥檚 energy use for more than two years now.
The current crisis is unique given that almost all baseload power plants are running at half or one-third of their capacities for one reason or another, with no hope of the situation improving anytime soon.
Bangladesh can smoothly run only a fourth of its 150 power plants at the moment.