‘I spend a bagful of money and don’t fill a bag’: the energy crisis hits Bangladesh

With gas supplies restricted last month, people have returned to cooking on traditional clay stoves in Dhaka. Photograph: Maruf Rahman/NurPhoto/Getty

At 1am, Halder’s alarm goes off and the 34-year-old Bangladeshi bank employee rises and heads to her kitchen. She is up at this time not for work but to cook for her family. An energy crisis paralysing the capital, Dhaka, a city of almost 40 million people, means this has become the only time when the piped gas supply is strong enough to allow cooking.

The city now operates in darkness, as people try to continue their lives with power even in public areas shut off early in the evening to preserve energy.