Apr 10, 2008 (DVB), Residents of Rangoon and Magwe divisions have complained that electricity shortages have become more regular, and claim that even the limited supply they have is unreliable.
A resident of Dawpon township in Rangoon division said that the electricity supply was sporadic and frequently cut out.
"The electricity is now not even available on the days it is supposed to be," the resident said.
"When it comes back on, it only lasts for about half an hour and then it goes off again."
Local authorities said they were currently unable to resolve the problems with the supply.
"We have complained about this matter to the authorities but they said they could not make any decisions about it at the moment as all the senior military officials are at Naypyidaw," the Dawpon resident said.
"Now we are in the middle of summer and it is difficult to get water when the electricity is off. Also, we are spending about 200 kyat every day on candles."
The resident said other townships in Rangoon were experiencing the same problems.
In Magwe, a local resident said the supply had become unreliable, leading people to over-use electricity whenever it became available.
"Before, we could tell which days the electricity would be on and which days it would be off. But now it's different, it just gets cut off randomly most of the time," the Magwe resident said.
"The problem is that when the electricity comes back on, a lot of people start using a lot of power as they know it won’t last for a long time. That causes power surges on the electricity transformers which makes the electricity go back off again."
Reporting by Maung Too