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The Oldest English Newspaper in South Asia
Founded 4.2.1834
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35, D.R. Wijewardene Mawatha,
Colombo 10, Sri Lanka.
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Using and abusing energy

The crunch is on the way. The energy crisis is such that very slowly the realisation seems to be dawning that it is not merely a question of meeting energy needs. It is also a question of how energy, that is, electricity, is used.

In a last ditch effort to save energy rather than have further power cuts, the Government has now enforced laws that will control the use of electricity for numerous non-industrial purposes such as entertainment, advertising and minor utility services such as street lighting.

Development strategists who have long questioned this headlong rush into un-regulated urbanisation, industrialisation and high-energy-consuming life styles, will welcome the Government's move as a step towards sanity.

Today, according to the model of modernity that we are presumed to be following, electricity may be utilised to facilitate all possible human activity only one of which is industrialisation and other essential services. These essential services include essential utilities such as lighting for basic living and work purposes, other human services such as medical care and, transport.

But 'modernisation' means also the conveniences of using electricity to power shaving, cutting one's hair, keeping cool or even brushing one's teeth. It also means, for example, an extensive entertainment industry that must keep radios, TVs, audio systems, both domestic as well as commercial, operating for hundreds of hours per week. Are we using energy entirely for the right purposes or, are we indulging in life styles that are impractical not only in terms of resource capacity, but also in terms of our basic physical fitness and health?

Are we ready to strike a balance rather than merely indulge?

Even as we proceed to build new power plants of various kinds to meet existing and future energy needs, the country will also have to face the reality that a drastic re-definition of these needs is necessary as the final answer to our energy crisis in the long term.

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