DAMASCUS,Syria: July 11 (Xinhua) — Power cuts for several hours a day have added more misery to the Syrians who are languishing under the brunt of a crunching crisis and economic hardship.
The Syrian government says it has a shortfall in electricity due to the damages inflicted by alleged armed groups on gas and oil pipelines and the resulting backlash against power stations.
This has prompted the government to cut power for two hours in the morning and one hour in the evening in the capital Damascus, and the power cuts could last for more than five hours in other areas.
Syria’s local media runs advertisements prodding households to make sure that lights and air-conditioning have not been left on in empty rooms, as the government said it has started rationing electricity to try and stave off an energy shortage.
The cutback has weighed heavily on industrial sector and forced some businesses to close; and disrupted commerce and leisure. Many others have increased reliance on generators.Energy experts and officials remain at loggerheads over the best way to end the country’s long-running electricity crisis amid promising that the power outage would be soon reduced, in part because of the summer temperature rises.
Power cuts occur every summer, but this year rising violent acts across the country mean they could be much more serious. Minister of Electricity Imad Khamis told local media that the infrastructure that was affected by terrorist acts is the reason behind the return of rationing in some areas.
Despite the heat, the minister said, the ministry has taken a number of measures to reduce rationing to a minimum, pointing out that the damage that occurred to the electric grid and power stations and switching centers has been estimated at billions of Syrian pounds.
Shortage in cooking gas has pushed Syrians to rely on electricity, causing thus an excessive loads on the network. A recent attack on a gas pipeline in the eastern region of Deir Al-Zour has put about 1,000 megabytes of electricity networks’ capacity out of service, putting an additional challenge on the Electricity Ministry to find an alternative in different ways.
Khamis said the ministry is now working to repair electricity networks damaged at some areas in the eastern and western outskirts of Damascus.He said damages at electricity networks alone reached 5 billion Syrian pounds (about 80 million U.S. dollars), adding that damages that were inflicted upon the national economy are estimated at up to nearly 100 billion Syrian pounds (about 1.55 billion dollars).
As for the excess loads on the network as a result of summer heat, the minister said the ministry adopts measures commensurate with the increased loads so as not to increase the hours of rationing.
Syrians also complain of the exorbitant electricity bills at a time when the country is overburdened by a crisis that has been dragging on for 16 months and by the crushing sanctions whose negative impacts have hit every sector in the country.
Tourism is dead and inflation has increased by 30 percent, with the Syrian pound plunged and business dipped. (Xinhua)
