By Ali Salem.
Tripoli, 1 March 2015:
Tripoli residents continue to . . .[restrict]suffer from ongoing power cuts in the capital, with the added burden of a diesel shortage that started two days ago. Long petrol queues have also again started to form over the last few days despite the state authorities assuring the public that there was ample fuel in storage.
The power cuts, the shortage of flour and the departure of many Egyptian workers has also led to bread queues at some bakeries.
The length of the blackouts varies from district to district, with areas in central Tripoli, such as Zawiat Al-Dahmani, Dahra, Ben Ashur, Hay Demashque, Al-Hadba Al-Khadra and Hay Andalus losing power for a daily average of four hours, while the suburbs of Sarraj and Ain Zara are in the dark for about six hours a day.
To cope with the situation, many Tripolitans have bought generators, but with the recent addition of the diesel shortage, these are often sitting idle.
“I decided to buy a generator because I could tell that it would be a while before our power issues were sorted out,” Tripoli resident Mohamed Jabu told the Libya Herald. “However, now I can’t even run my generator because there’s no fuel for it,” he said.
For its part, the General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) has claimed that the power outages will reduce to three to four hours a day.
In a statement published this week, the company has predicted that a total of 4920 megawatts would be generated, while 6050 megawatts would be consumed. The resulting deficit of 1,130 megawatts would cause three to four-hour blackouts each day, it stated. [/restrict]
