The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lassoreported that he will meet on Saturday in Bogotá with his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro in search of help to face the energy crisis in the country, where this Thursday he began an electricity rationing program of up to four hours.
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“Early tomorrow I will travel to Bogotá to speak with President @petrogustavo and seek his support to resolve Ecuador’s energy crisis”Lasso wrote on his X account, formerly called Twitter.
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The day before, Quito announced power cuts of up to four hours a day throughout the country due to the drought that has caused the flow of the tributaries that feed the hydroelectric plants to decrease. According to authorities, the nation is going through the worst dry season in the last 50 years.
The measure began to be implemented this Thursday, causing complaints from productive sectors. The Chamber of Commerce of Quito and the Chamber of Industries and Production estimated that “for every hour without electricity, the commercial sector would stop selling 18 million dollars”.
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The chamber regretted that “this abrupt interruption” of electricity occurs in the last quarter of the year, when there is a greater volume of sales.
Lasso added that Ecuador “has sold electricity to Colombia to support the supply of its internal demand,” because he considered that “this time there will be reciprocity” with his country.
Ecuadorians:
Tomorrow morning I will travel to Bogotá to speak with the president @petrogustavo and seek their support to resolve Ecuador’s energy crisis.
At different times, our country has sold electricity to Colombia to support the supply of its demand…
— Guillermo Lasso (@LassoGuillermo) October 27, 2023
Rationing could be extended until December, while the country purchases energy.
The outages occur in a time slot between 7 am and 6 pm (local time). During the nights the service will not be suspended due to the conditions of violence facing the country, warned the Minister of Energy, Fernando Santos.
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Ecuador, with 16.9 million inhabitants, declared an emergency last week in the electricity sector after Colombia limited the sale of energy to the country.
Low flows in the tributaries in the Amazon area, where most of the hydroelectric plants are located, and a delay in the arrival of the rainy season due to the impact of the El Niño Phenomenon, have affected the Ecuadorian electricity sector.
AFP
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