10 June,2010 03:22 PM IST | | Agencies
Football fans in Nepal are praying for a good monsoon to ease a crippling national power shortage that threatens to prevent them watching World Cup matches.
Nepal depends almost entirely on hydropower, and the country's 28 million people face up to 18 hours of power cuts a day until the onset of the monsoon in June brings enough water to meet the demand for electricity.
Fans have appealed to the authorities to leave the power on during key matches, but their pleas appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
"It will simply not be possible to reduce the power cuts during the World Cup because we cannot meet demand," said Sher Singh Bhat, an official with the Nepal Electricity Authority.
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"We will only be able to do so when the monsoon arrives."
Football has become hugely popular in impoverished Nepal in recent years as television viewing has taken off.
Some wealthier Kathmandu neighbourhoods have clubbed together to buy generators for the World Cup, but many fans fear missing the games altogether, and blame the government for their predicament.
"I have been waiting four years for this and now it looks like the power cuts will ruin my plans," 21-year-old student Prakash Sapkota told AFP.
"I hold the government responsible for this unfortunate situation."
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