Energy Minister warns Lebanon risks 'total blackout'
The alarm raised by the interim holder of the department Raymond Ghajar: by the end of the month the electricity supply could be stopped. The situation has reached unprecedented criticality levels, not reached even during civil war. The appeal to Parliament for the approval of the 2021 budget and the release of funds.
Beirut (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Lebanese caretaker energy minister has warned the country would plunge into "total darkness" at the end of the month if no money was secured to buy fuel for power stations.
Power cuts have been common in Lebanon ever since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, forcing Lebanese to pay a second power bill to private generators for three to 12 hours each day during the outages. Now the country is facing its worst economic crisis in decades, and fast running out of hard currency to back imports.
Usually, the cuts can vary between three and 12 hours depending on the time. However, most recently the situation has reached levels of criticality never recorded before, a consequence of the worst economic crisis on a national scale and the collapse of the local currency.
Minister Raymond Ghajar confirmed that the coffers of the state electric company, Electricité du Liban, are empty and the body is in serious financial difficulty. "Lebanon could fall - he stressed - into total darkness at the end of the month, in the event that Electricité du Liban does not receive substantial aid for the purchase of fuel".
Addressing the press after a meeting with President Michel Aoun, the caretaker minister warned of the very heavy repercussions in all sectors, productive and otherwise, of the country in the event of a complete blockade.
"Imagine your life without electricity, internet, phones, hospitals or vaccines... It's surreal to live in the 21st century without electricity," he said. Ghajar has called for emergency funding for the state power company to continue providing power, until a larger loan is approved by parliament.
Until now the electricity company had been functioning on the remains of a loan allocated under the 2020 budget, but the 2021 budget has not yet been passed as the country struggles with twin economic and political crises.
In mid-October, Aoun tasked three-time Prime Minister Rafic Hariri with putting together a new cabinet. The crisis of the last year is but one of the many difficulties affecting Lebanon’s political and economic life, as well as its very political institutions.
The already precarious situation has worsened with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the two explosions that rocked the port of Beirut in August, finally pushing 55 per cent of the population below the poverty line amid a permanent emergency.
The extreme instability has triggered a spike in suicides and a rush to buy the few remaining drugs, whilst hospitals are in catastrophic conditions.
"What is surreal is that we have these officials in charge," one wrote, echoing widespread sentiment that the country's political elite is incompetent or corrupt and responsible for the country's many crises.
The international community has long demanded a complete overhaul of the electricity sector, which has cost the government more than billion since the end of the war.
.png)
01/06/2021 12:44
