Blackouts plague South Asia nations as mercury boils

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2006

DHAKA (AFP) — As south Asia enjoys unprecedented economic growth, soaring summer temperatures have highlighted a chronic shortage of electricity that is crippling enterprise and leaving millions to suffer without any hope of respite.

From India, the world's second fastest growing major economy after China, to impoverished Bangladesh, which has enjoyed five percent annual growth since the early 1990s, governments are plagued by the problem of growing demand for power combined with inadequate supply.

In Bangladesh, where nearly half the 140 million population still gets by on less than a dollar a day, the anger of farmers unable to get power to irrigate their crops has led to violent clashes and the death of at least 17 people.

Meanwhile business leaders have...