Lebanon Electricity has accused the protesters on Saturday to have sabotaged the power grid, while the cuts are more and more frequent.
Le Monde with AFP
The Public Electricity of Lebanon (EDL) announced on Saturday, January 8th that its plants were at a stop, accusing protesters to be responsible for this new blackout, having sabotaged the network. Public electricity is already cut at least twenty hours a day in Lebanon due to a fuel shortage related to the country’s economic collapse.
Saturday, protesters watched by cuts rushed to an EDL distribution plant in the Aramoun area, north of Beirut, EDL explained in a statement. “This disrupted the electricity grid (…) causing a complete blackout through the Lebanese territory at 5:27 pm (15 h 27 GMT).”
Private generators out of price
The cuts have been paralyzing the lives of the population and several vital sectors, while the managers of private generators, who usually take over, also rations businesses, hospitals and homes, as the fuel is scarce.
From now, the average monthly electricity invoice for a Lebanese family using a private generator exceeds the minimum wage of 675,000 Lebanese pounds (about $ 22), the local currency having collapsed against the green ticket on the black market .
EDL, Symbol of the mismanagement of the country
Lebanon, whose ruling class is accused of corruption and incompetence, has been suffering from decades of endemic electrical sub-production and mismanagement of EDL that cost the treasure more than $ 40 billion. Since the end of the civil war (1975-1990).
The international community calls for urgent reforms to the authorities, particularly for the EDL, symbol of poor governance and the deliquidity of the public services of the country. Lebanon has negotiated in the fall with Egypt and Jordan the delivery of gas and electricity via Syria, while the Shiite Hezbollah movement has announced several Iranian fuel deliveries to overcome shortages.