It's Earth Hour every day in Cambodia

Today, apparently, cities in 35 countries around the world will have Earth Hour, where residents will turn off their lights, TVs, air conditioners and computers between 8 and 9pm to signal their concern about climate change. Of course this won't have any real effect on the world's electricity use or carbon emissions - it's an entirely symbolic gesture. But if people want to think that they are doing their little bit for the earth, then good on them.

But if switching things off for one hour, once a year is "doing our bit", then Cambodians are way ahead of us all. Here, it's Earth Hour every day at the moment. And not just one hour, but three, four or five hours. Of course, it's not because everyone here is incredibly environmentally aware. It's because we have blackouts nearly every day now.

Despite their almost daily occurrence, there is nothing predictable about the blackouts. The timing and duration are seemingly random. But there are vague patterns that emerge. Morning blackouts are fairly rare, and usually last less than an hour. Afternoon blackouts are the worst, starting at lunch time and usually continuing till around 3 or 4pm. Night time blackouts start around dinner time and go for half an hour to an hour. At least that used to be the case. Now, the afternoon blackouts can continue until the offices in the city close down at 5, and the nighttimes ones can go for 2 or 3 hours. The frequency is getting worse too. For most of last year, we might have had only three or four blackouts every fortnight, and rarely on weekends. Now, it's unusual not to have one every day, or sometimes two.

Dealing with it has become routine, but no less annoying. All the computers in the office have small Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPSs), which are basically batteries the size of a shoe box, which can power a computer for a few minutes - enough to save your work and shut down the computer but not much else. While they do this, they give off a high-pitched squeal every 5 seconds or so to let you know you're about to loose power. So the first thing you hear when the power goes during a work day is the discordant symphony of squeals, out of time and out of tune with each other. This is closely followed by a universal groan from the staff, and the usual muttering. About two minutes later, someone will start up the diesel generator. That signals the end of the squeals and the start of the relentless grinding of the motor, which is conveniently situated next to our work area to cause maximum annoyance.

For Cambodians, I suspect, this is not such a big deal. Outside of the main cities, where most of our staff still have family and roots, electricity supply is rare. Only 13% of households in the country are connected to a grid. Most rural households cannot afford generators, so their only source of electricity is car batteries, which they recharged every couple of days for less than a dollar at the nearest battery recharging business (there's probably at least one in most villages). That's enough to power a ghostly fluro light and a few hours of Khmer karaoke or soap operas on TV. As for the noise of the generator, well Cambodia is a noisy country so they are used to it. Probably the worst aspect is the extra expense - an extra $3 or $4 on diesel every day adds up.

Bek and I work in a different building to most of the staff, which is attached to a different generator used by the hearing project. This generator is used less often and struggles to get enough juice to power the computers, so Bek has to do without her computer quite often these days. Luckily I have my laptop, which lasts about 4 hours on battery (that is, when Bek doesn't commandeer it!). But we make do.

Phnom Penh's electricity grid, such as it is, is powered entirely by a small number of medium-sized diesel generators. The basic problem is that there is not enough generating capacity to keep pace with economic growth and the growing energy demands of the rich and middle class. Cambodia has one of the lowest levels of electricity consumption per capita in the world. The average Australian uses as much electricity in a single day as the average Cambodian uses in four and a half years. But the demand is growing fast and the supply is nowhere close to keeping up. While economists blame inefficiencies, uncompetitive market structures and inadequate legal frameworks in the electricity sector, for me this is just symptomatic of the growing burden being placed on infrastructure by the wealthy few. There are only so many over-sized 4WDs and air-conditioned mansions that the country can take.

So if you decide to do your ecological duty in Earth Hour this year, spare a thought for a country that has no choice.

P.S. Sure enough, come 8:30pm last night, the power went off for two hours. Someone had forgotten to refill the diesel tank, and the generator died after a few minutes. So we sat under palm trees and chatted in the dark with wine and cheese. Life's pretty tough.