Bangladesh faces worst heat wave since 1971; Photo: File
Dhaka: Bangladesh is currently facing its worst heatwave in decades, during which prolonged power load-shedding has made life miserable for citizens.
According to the World News Agency, the temperature in Bangladesh reached 40 degrees Celsius. Citizens trying to avoid the scorching sun have no shelter while load-shedding has made them suffer twice.
“We have never seen such a long heat wave since 1971,” said a senior Bangladesh Meteorological Department official. The heat is not letting up. Looks like this whole month will go like this.
Despite having a strong economy, Bangladesh is facing a shortage of dollars for payments, for which the IMF has also approved loans, but it is facing difficulties in purchasing petroleum products.
The government has already shut down several diesel-powered power stations to save foreign exchange, resulting in load-shedding periods of 15 to 18 hours in many areas and 20 hours in some places.
To keep global energy bills under control, power savings were decided, with schools having three holidays a week and then early holidays, while office hours were also changed.
Bangladesh’s currency ‘Taka’ has depreciated by around 25% against the US dollar.
(function(d, s, id){
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3&appId=770767426360150”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.7”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));