2016 Sep 19
by Ridmi Upeksha
Energy like any other vital aspect of life, has become a prominent highlight of day to day activities making it even more prominent by the day than rest of the other vital aspects of life. We use energy for almost all our day to day activities, starting from where you make your morning coffee to going to sleep on your bed. urbanisation and industrialisation can be recognised as the initiators of the current mass energy consuming in our society. Our energy consumption and energy requirement has become out of reach from a long time, and we have been finding new ways to create more energy by using our environmental resources and surroundings.
Saving energy, unlike in Sri Lanka, in most of the western countries it has become a national concern leading the society to act towards a hassle free, resourceful and an efficient unit when it comes to consumption of energy that led to the development of their countries. Most of these countries have educated their people about saving energy so that they are aware of the complications of overtime energy consumption, so that in any case of emergency or power blackout they know to act accordingly. Moreover, they also spend their day to day energy units in the most effective way and be methodical as possible when it comes to using their energy so that the risk of overtime energy consumption becomes less.
Sri Lanka, a country with enough resources to create new and more energy is at its lowest point when it comes to producing new energy and preserving the energy we have. What is the reason for this unfortunate situation? Can we find an immediate solution for the current issue at hand?
Firstly, it’s highly unlikely that most Sri Lankans are aware of saving energy and know ways to be efficient when using it. The cost of electric energy does not seem to have given a hint to our people about why the more we should save what we have. What they mostly do is just complaint when the electric bill is so high and taking the easy route by blaming it on the government officials. Does it occur to you that the government is supplying to energy needs of each and every one of us in the country? And how complicated it is to maintain and develop the energy we have? Our society and the country need to be more focused about seeing the big picture as a whole to optimise and save the energy resources we have before blaming it on someone else.
Secondly, lack of education about saving energy that’s been provided to the people by the government is similarly less. A proper education program on how to save energy and introducing new ways to create the energy needs can be recognised as the first step forward in saving the energy we have. If these measures were implemented it will lead the whole nation to look at this issue positively and take their actions to prevent this issue, leading it to a better efficient, energy saving, and resourceful country.
Thirdly, our society is commonly filled with people with the most primitive instincts, such as placing themselves in the first place and being only worried about their survival. Like in many other situations in life, we have to place ourselves among everyone else to find the answer to our overtime energy consumption. If we carefully observe the surrounding and try to minimise unnecessary energy consuming sources the way we can in our household as a start, taking it to the next level by being observant at the office you work at, will lead us to a massive energy saving in no time.
Sri Lankans are the kind of people who switch on all their appliances at once after one electric blackout. We do not think about the outcome of our actions, how it will affect the energy plants when we drag up so much of energy at once. On top of this when it comes to using energy that we think we are not paying for, and the way some of us abuse it is completely unacceptable. Road lights turned on at 5.00 pm and hundreds of people just driving pass by without taking any actions are absolutely pitiful.
It is quite shameful to know what led a nation to be so ignorant about an issue that effects the whole nation. Is there no way that we can be more thoughtful and work as a country to find answers to this problem? Most of us doesn’t care much about what happens to the neighbour next door, or sometimes the person who is working at the next cubical to you. Why not try make new friends, help them out with what you know about saving energy, to save what’s your and theirs for better consumption of energy. If you see any unnecessary energy consuming utilities on take your time and try to stop what you see. Save it for yourself for today and for someone else tomorrow!
