Minister of Energy: Unless the necessary money is provided to purchase fuel for the factories

Lebanon is heading towards "total darkness" at the end of this month

Caretaker Minister of Energy and Water Raymond Ghajar.

Dalati and a river

The Minister of Energy and Water in the caretaker government, Raymond Ghajar, warned yesterday that Lebanon may go to "total darkness" at the end of this month, unless the necessary money is made available to buy the fuel that powers the factories.

Lebanon, mired in its worst economic crises for at least three decades, is facing a worsening problem in the electricity sector with its dilapidated plants, and long rationing hours exceeding 12 hours, and this forced most citizens to pay two bills, one for the state and the other for the owners of private electricity generators, which compensate for the shortage. State supplies.

Ghajar said after his meeting with the President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, according to statements carried by the National News Agency: "Lebanon may go into total darkness at the end of this month, if the EDL is not granted a financial contribution to buy the fuel."

He added: “The problem today is the lack of funds needed to buy the fuel,” after the funds allocated until now were relied on in the 2020 budget. Lebanon did not approve the 2021 budget after the prolonged collapse, liquidity scarcity, and the dwindling dollar reserves of the Banque du Liban. .

The Ministry of Energy requested that it be granted an advance of 200 billion pounds from the budget reserve, to provide the urgent need for the EDL, out of a total of 1500 billion it needs to secure electricity.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called the relevant parliamentary committees to a session, on Tuesday, to study two items, one of which is a proposal for an accelerated bill that would be repeated to grant EDL this advance.

Since the beginning of the year, Lebanon has secured the necessary fuel to operate the electricity production plants via ships, after the expiration of a contract with Sonatrach without renewing it, following a legal dispute over the so-called "fake fuel" case.

Lebanon is negotiating with the Iraqi authorities to supply it with 500 thousand tons of heavy fuel oil, in exchange for Iraq obtaining Lebanese medicines and goods, but no final agreement has been announced, especially since Iraqi oil does not meet specifications, and Lebanon intends to exchange it for matching oil.

Ghajar warned of "catastrophic consequences" on all sectors, and said, "Imagine your life without electricity, without the Internet, without a phone, without a hospital, without a vaccine. I personally feel that this is surreal. It is not normal to live in the 21st century without electricity."

Ghajar’s statements sparked widespread criticism, and the tag # Minister of Energy was issued on the Twitter site, and one of the users wrote: “We are supposed to inform the Minister of Energy until he finds a solution for us.” Another commented, “The surreal is that we have such officials.”

The electricity sector is the worst among the infrastructures, and has cost the state treasury more than $ 40 billion since the end of the civil war (1975-1990).

Follow our latest local and sports news, and the latest political and economic developments via Google news