UAE | General

Give us a time frame, Sewa urged

Residents urged Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (Sewa) officials to give them a time frame as to when power will be restored in affected areas.

  • By Sunita Menon and Mariam M. Al Serkal, Staff Reporters
  • Published: 22:30 August 27, 2009
  • Gulf News

  • Image Credit: Arshad Ali/Gulf News
  • Students of the American University of Sharjah literally burn the midnight oil as power remains unrestored in campus.
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Sharjah: Residents urged Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (Sewa) officials to give them a time frame as to when power will be restored in affected areas.

Power was cut at 2pm on Wednesday afternoon in Al Wahda, Al Yarmook, Al Qasimia, Al Noaf, parts of Al Nahda, Maleiha, Sharjah University City, and Industrial Areas 1, 3, 4, 6, 13, 15, and 17. Power was not restored till late last evening.

Residents said they were forced to move to friends' houses in Dubai and had to throw away foodtsuff in their refrigerators.

A senior Sewa official said the power outage was due to an overload at one of the main power production plants as the electricity supplied was more than its capacity.

"Technicians are working on the power plant and are installing new parts. We expect the electricity to resume in most areas by [last night], and the remaining areas will be completely connected by Friday night," the official said.

"I have done food shopping worth Dh3,000 and now they are all going to rot with the electricity is not restored soon. Why can't Sewa provide us with a time frame as to when they will set things right. This is the second week that we are forced to live without electricity," said Ekramul Riaz, a resident of Industrial Area 1.

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"What is going on is ridiculous. Sewa should be a little more responsible in carrying out their work. Their job is to make sure that residents do not suffer. Power cuts happen but not in the manner it is taking place here," said James Mathew, a resident.

About a year ago Sewa introduced a Dh70 service charge for customers, but this is what we get in return - no reply for our questions of what is wrong and when we will get uninterrupted power supply, complained another resident.

Fadi Hussain, 15, has been spending most of his days in malls along with his younger sister and some friends.

A resident of Al Nahda, he said: "It is really awful to live without electricity. Everyone at home is getting irritated. Me and my younger sister decided to get out of the house and spend time in malls. But then again how much will we roam around, we have to go back home. My mom has shifted some of the refrigerated vegetables and frozen stuff to a friend's place where they have electricity."

University students were evacuated from their student accommodation and were unable to prepare their iftar meals as a result of the power outage.

"The dormitory supervisor said it was going to be returned after one hour, but it didn't. It was 20 minutes before the call for prayer and I couldn't prepare my iftar meal, and it was too late to call a restaurant for a takeaway meal," said a female student at the American University of Sharjah (AUS). The administration at AUS said a back-up plan was put into action during the power outage. All students living inside the campus were told to either spend the night with their relatives, or stay in the campus mosque or in the Student Centre.

Has your business been affected by the power outage? Or is there no electricity at your residence? How has it affected your fasts? What steps have you taken to cope with the power cuts?

Your comments


The authorities should spend a night with their families without electricity in this season - then only they can understand the situation and definitely will do the needful to rectify the problem ASAP. SEWA should at least inform the residents how long will it take to restore the electricity so we can manage to avoid the problem ourselves. Please tell us how long it will take to rectify the problem.
Kazim Mohammad Ghori
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 17:08

Please give us time frame because in Ramadan we are facing too much problem.
Ayaz Ahmad
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 16:42

I am a resident of the women dorms at AUS. It?s my first semester here and within 5 days I was forced to move out due to power outrage. I just had a date and water for iftar and later had to call my roommates relatives to take us away. Although the power got restored around 12a.m, the experience was very unpleasant. SEWA should sort out the issue as soon as possible. It?s stressful and very disturbing during this Holy month of Ramadan.
Maryam
Dubai,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 15:58

I was a resident of Sharjah for 6 years till December 2008. I moved to India. In Kerala we have power cuts always, and I am adjusted to that. But in Sharjah I don?t understand why people make it a big issue. We should understand that there are areas in India where there is no electricity at all.
Rasheed
Cochin,India
Posted: August 28, 2009, 15:57

I guess its high time for SEWA to inform the residents of Sharjah well in advance before the power cut. This will enable the residents to take alternate steps. Its just a matter of being proactive rather than being reactive. I haven?t stayed in Sharjah but the place where I stay in Karama has this problem of power cut on almost every Friday. This is one day that most of us are getting to take a nap inside especially when the heat is just unbearable. When we ask the authorities they say that they are doing some kind of work as there was an over load in one of the main power. The authorities need to ensure that residents who are staying should not suffer.
Mathew Litty
Dubai,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 15:44

Electricity was restored, however, it?s the same story again. As of 13:00 28 August, We are in dark again, at Industrial Area 13. I guess same will be the case with others too. This is just totally unacceptable.
Roman
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 15:35

Living without electricity is too much to handle, especially during Ramadan. Instead of staying at home to fast and pray during the day time, people resort to roaming around in the malls just to feel relief from this sweltering heat. SEWA must put an end to this problem as soon as possible. Or at least they could provide proper information to the residents of Sharjah as to what actions are being taken and when we can expect everything to be normal again.
Maryam
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 15:01

I would like to request to SEWA, please restore electricity in all affected areas, as I have never seen this type of power outage in UAE in my 16 years tenure. It?s really disgusting
Khuzema A. Hussain
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 14:58

No one is picking 991. How may children are affected because of this? Who is responsible?
Raj Kumar
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 14:52

We need SEWA to tell us if this outage is expected to happen again!
A Reader
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 13:49

Street lights are on in Sharjah Industrial area during the day. How strange is this?
A Reader
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 12:05

I live with my family in Industrial area -10. This is the second week running without power. I have called SEWA many times and not even a single call was answered except for one call. When SEWA answered that call they asked me to call 991...am amazed to hear that SEWA was unable to answer me rather redirecting me to another number. I think am not getting any service for the monthly service charges I pay along with my bill.
Vimal Mathew
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 10:47

SEWA is taking an amount of Dh70 per month on every bill as service charge from every tenant .Then where this money is invested?
Shibu K. Jacob
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 10:22

It has had been hard especially at the month of Ramadan without electricity. I had twice thrown out all the refrigerated items I bought for the Ramadan. My company has been considerably kind enough to offer accommodation to us in a hotel, but however the cost of getting food from outside is more expensive than the hotel charges itself. I really do not understand how Sewa can be really irresponsible especially not being fast on their actions to restore power especially in a blessed month like Ramadan. People are running around to find alternate solution. At least if SEWA could announce the time frame it requires to reinstall the regular supply, since temporarily getting it back cannot help us fill our refrigerators.
Faisal
Dubai,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 10:18

SEWA is irresponsible; when it comes to work we can see what they can do. Did they think that their generators will work for ever? They never put an emergency plan to handle the situation if one of the generators will go off?
Murad Tardi
Al Ain,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 09:37

This is the same thing when my father went to India for work the power in Bhubaneswar (near the bay of Bengal) where my dad stays was out since morning to 1am but Sharjah is worse! I was really shocked to hear the news imagine in the UAE There's been major problems in Sharjah and power fluctuation in our house
Omar Amin
Dubai,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 09:23

We had contacted SEWA emergency lines of Industrial Area to inquire on what happened and when shall the electricity be restored? They just backfired stating "We don?t know and don?t call back to this number again!" What?s this? Please understand this is a month of Ramadan and there has to be more courtesy or commitment from SEWA towards the public.
Sayed Hanis
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 09:18

We have been running a printing press for more than a decade. Last week itself we were hit badly with 3 days of electricity cut. Again its being repeated this week. We are quite tensed of losing out our valuable clients. It has definitely affected people holding their fasts. It becomes just impossible to hold ourselves in this blazing heat. SEWA does not give any prior notice of the electricity cut
Sanish Cherian
Dubai,U.A.E
Posted: August 28, 2009, 07:46

SEWA will be very prompt in disconnecting the connection if the electricity bill payment is delayed. Electricity is the basic necessity and residents have all the rights to demand for it. A couple of years ago, the deposit amount required for getting electricity connection in Sharjah used to be Dh1,000. Now they have increased it to Dh2,000! The funniest part of the rule is that all the existing customers are also supposed to pay additional Dh1,000 if they want to register the tenancy contract.
Sundar
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 06:55

Industrial 10 was also affected by the power outage. We were really distressed! We lost power last Wednesday around 2pm then was restored Thursday 9:30am... more than 19 hours straight without electricity! Don't they wonder how people cope with the heat especially the children/infants? My children were complaining that it was too hot and that they couldn't sleep. Everywhere they go, may it be outside or inside the room, and they can feel the heat. Not just that, our food also just went to waste! Since the power was just restored a few hours ago, we were not expecting another power interruption that same day! Unfortunately, after 3 hours, we lost electricity again and was only turned on a few minutes ago.... more than 12 hours without electricity! We just lost power for 19 long hours but why do they have to cut it again and make us wait for another 12 hours? Until when are we going to suffer? We hope that they would consider all the people living in the affected areas and that they wouldn?t cut the power more than 4 hours a day to make it easier for us.
Jeffrey
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 01:52

I don?t understand why people are making it a big issue just wait and give time to SEWA they are fixing the problem. Imagine people living without electricity.
Abdullah Aziz
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: August 28, 2009, 01:27

We all understand that technical problems do occur and it takes time to rectify. But instead of taking power from some sectors completely why cant SEWA phase the power cuts in durations of two hours along the whole emirate, so that no one will remain affected in manner that they do now.
Feroz Rahman
sharjah,uae
Posted: August 28, 2009, 00:42

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