What was feared has happened: Lebanon has plunged into a total blackout; and what is worse is that the crisis will probably continue for a few days. The government itself had to admit it. For some time now the Lebanese have had to spend hours every day without electricity due to the fuel crisis.
Now the two largest power plants still in operation have had to close due to the total exhaustion of fuel oil reserves: the Zahrani plant stopped, after yesterday, Friday, the Deir plant had completely stopped working. Ammar.
The electricity grid is often fully operational at noon and is unlikely to resume until next Monday at least. The government explained that the electricity company will try to use the army’s fuel oil reserve to temporarily reactivate it, but that won’t happen soon.
For some time the Lebanese have had to do without electricity for several hours a day: long queues stop regularly at petrol stations. In recent months, the country has seen more and more fuel available: families and companies that can afford it have equipped themselves with private diesel-powered generators, an operation that is however becoming more and more expensive.
Lebanon is paralyzed by an economic crisis that has only worsened with the exhaustion of stocks of imported fuel: the Land of the Cedars has been experiencing the worst economic and financial crisis in its history for almost two years and there is no way forward. ‘exit. According to the World Bank, it is one of the three worst crises the world has seen in the past 150 years.
Many Lebanese even find it difficult to get what they need most: bread, the price of which is constantly increasing precisely because of the shortage of fuel. At one time bread cost about 1500 lire, the equivalent of about 80 cents; today it costs 6 thousand lire, about 3.35 euros. Currently about three quarters of the population lives in poverty, the local currency has lost more than 90% of its value and inflation has soared.
To weigh is the unsustainable public debt (174%) which has consequences on foreign exchange reserves, which in turn impact on the supply of fuel and medicines. Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who has just taken office, has resumed talks with the International Monetary Fund and is ready to reopen negotiations with his creditors after a stop of over a year caused by the long political crisis that has left the country of the Cedars without a government in full swing.
Meanwhile, the international community continues to offer development aid on the condition that Lebanon implements reforms to stop unnecessary spending and corruption. The European Parliament recently threatened to sanction officials involved in corruption and hindering reforms. But the fear is that Mikati will not be able to bring about significant changes and that, at best, he will find temporary solutions, without addressing the root causes of the current crisis.