Our kitchen waste can power our stoves — if we stop treating it as garbage. In Karachi, the cool weather does not last long in winter, but gas load shedding continues well into April. Karachiites know well the sputtering flame that dies mid-meal, gas pressure falling to a whisper, and families waiting for hours for a kettle to boil.
Gas load-shedding has quietly reshaped daily life. Families switch to LPG cylinders or to highly dangerous gas pressure machines (affecting the equity of gas access). The gas cylinders we use have no safety standards — no valves, no gauges, not even a simple way to know when they’re about to run out. They’ve become a fixture everywhere, from tiny apartment kitchens to high-end homes, posing the same quiet risk across the city.
For many lower-income households, wood, coal, and makeshift stoves remain their only options.
Continue Reading on Dawn
This preview shows approximately 15% of the article. Read the full story on the publisher's website to support quality journalism.