BANGLADESH
Paralysed Bangla
Where the Bangladeshi government fails in supplying power to its people, it does not quite make up for in its attempt to find a solution to the problem. Having recently made electricity more expensive by up to nearly eight percent, the Sheikh Hasina administration is not exactly basking in the glow of popular approval. In addition to increasing the financial pressure on individuals and families, the move has also served a blow to numerous industries already crippled by gas shortages. Yet despite the weight of the problem, the government's current approach towards a way out appears lackadaisical at best. Back in September 2009, the Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation, the government set-up better known as Petrobangla, made a maiden appeal to foreign companies to explore and study the country's uncharted gas fields. But the project seems to have hit a stumbling block before it even got started. Reportedly, Petrobangla and the Energy Ministry have not been able to coordinate with each other to take the project forward on time, hence leaving the domestic industrial sector scrambling to fulfil its fuel needs.
Nearly a half-year has now passed since 44 global firms submitted expressions of interest, while the task of short-listing the bidders was to have been finished by mid-December. Also at hand under this project is the drilling of six wells in state-owned gas fields. It is expected that once the drilling is complete, each of these wells will supply 25 million cubic feet of gas every day, tentatively levelling supply and demand by 2012. But now, this timeline looks increasingly like a pipedream. The Dhaka government needs to realise that a plan needs to be worked on just as much as work needs to be planned out.
THE MALDIVES
Atoll sanctuary