In the Philippines the power often goes out. In my city the power company regularly schedules brown outs that last from 8-12 hours. The alleged reason is the need to work on the lines. They don't advertise this on their webpage. They advertise it in the notes section of their Facebook page. Why does the local power company have a Facebook account? Because everyone has their nose buried in their phone browsing Facebook. It's as if that's the only website they know here. But that's material for another post. Suffice it to say if you want to get information to Filipinos you have to do it through Facebook. But even so who thinks to look on Facebook for information that should be on the electric company's main site? And they don't even publish it there. It's Facebook only.
But back to the electrical situation here. Power lines are strung all across the city in a horrid mishmash and tangle of black lines. Some lines even dangle precariously into the street. Are they live? Dead? Who knows! It's certainly dangerous to have power lines dangling in the street. Many of the wooden poles hoisting these lines are rotted and toppling over which further heightens the danger of electrical fire or brownouts as well as death to passersby. It's simply not a good situation in any way.
Here's a picture of a typical Filipino lineman. No bucket truck. No safety harness. Just a ladder resting against a thick nest of power lines. Workers standing idly by not even attempting to secure the ladder. Working in the middle of the street on a busy day. I have seen this exact type of hazardous work situation many times in the city. This is not atypical. In fact it's a very typical carryover of the DIY fix-it attitude that is prevalent here. That's great if you are repairing your own electronic devices but not when you are repairing the power lines which give life to an entire city.
With such unsafe, unprofessional, hazardous, and potentially deadly workmanship is it any wonder the electricity fails so often here?
No comments:
Post a Comment