When the season of storm sets in over the country, we witness sharp rise in deaths by electrocution every year. Many deaths have been taking place every year in different places in the country because of live electric wires swaying and hanging from the poles indiscriminately.
With nor’wester thunderstorm and rain, people of different districts including capital Dhaka, other metropolitan cities, district towns and even remote villages fear electrocution as wire snap. Therefore, unsafe high voltage electric wires have turned death trap for people across the country.
Many people have died after being electrocuted due to the uncovered power line. The number of fatalities and injuries caused by electrocution is now on the rise.
When cities’ key roads, streets, lanes and by-lanes are flooded with rainwater, many dangerously tilted or hanging live electrical wires or pole partially or totally submerge in water, create an electrical field in the water and claim lives.
Six people, including three children of a family, were electrocuted to death in Goalbari village of Moulvibazar’s Juri upazila while two siblings died from electrocution at Uribunia village in Nesarabad upazila of Pirojpur district recently. All the victims were unaware of the trap they got electrocuted. People are being exposed to a nightmare on their way as they cannot trace where the electrical cables remain submerged in water logged roads and streets. The nor’wester or cyclonic storm also snaps electric cables, uproots trees and topples power poles, posing risk of deadly accident anytime.
Unsafe high voltage
electric wires have
turned death trap for people
Apart from the urban, uncovered electric lines are also running through the rural areas killing people there silently. The electric wires are seen hanging indiscriminately while many villagers are lighting up their houses and doing business by arranging power connection from different sources like nearby shops and illegally from electric poles.
Besides, electricity is also being supplied to houses, business shops and other purposes, using bamboo poles at many villages under the very nose of the authorities concerned. On the other hand, many poles have been set up on the farm lands to carry the high voltage cables, posing a high risk to the farmers and other people of the country’s many areas.
The incident is also occurring when people catch fish in a water body close to their houses. Thousands of people pass through the streets, footpaths, village roads and even farmlands throughout the day and night, mostly without noticing the open electric wires.
They may come into contact with the live electric wires anytime and meet the traffic end of their lives due to electrocution. So, people feel more worried when they pass through the risky areas.
A large number of electric poles in different districts of the country remained dangerously tilted for long. We appreciate the government’s achievement as every house of the country now has access to electricity.
But if the power distribution lines like electric poles and wires are not safe, the increased trend of fatalities and injuries caused by electrocution will fade the achievement away. Concerned ministries must take immediate measures to remove risky electric wires and replace risky poles.
