Original version

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC OS Conversations

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

How major news stories are affecting the lives of people around the world

Bringing together people from around the world to discuss how major news stories are affecting their lives.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC OS Conversations: Living with power cuts

Factual

Living with power cuts

04/02/2023 GMT

BBC World Service - BBC OS Conversations, Living with power cuts

We hear from people who experience regular power interrruptions

Around the world, millions of people live with daily electricity blackouts. 

In recent days in South Africa, protesters – angry that the electricity keeps going off – marched through Johannesburg and Cape Town. The country’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, said that it was understandable that people were fed up, but warned that it could not be fixed overnight. The situation has, however, been deteriorating for several years.

All our guests express their frustrations with creaking energy infrastructure and inadequate responses from their governments. We speak to three women in South Africa who share their experiences. They tell us about their daily struggles to get everything done before the power goes off, the effect on their children’s education and concerns about security. 

Two business owners, in Sri Lanka and Nigeria, come together to discuss the financial impact of power cuts. Kayode, who runs a guest house, tells us the situation is so bad that he is thinking of leaving the country.

We also hear from Bushra, a young researcher in northern Pakistan, and Serena who runs an online yoga business in Sri Lanka. They express their hopes for the future and Serena offers some advice: “Breathe, you have to breathe,” she tells us. “Yoga teaches us to let go and accept some of the difficulties and hardships of life.”

(Photo: Ismail Sha studies with a rechargeable lantern for his final examination during one of the frequent power outages, called load-shedding, in South Africa, 25 October, 2022. Credit: Esa Alexander/Reuters)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

BBC OS Conversations

Living with power cuts

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

About BBC World Service