Shaaban Bilal (Beirut, Cairo)
The electricity and energy shortage crisis has escalated in Lebanon, which is pushing the Lebanese to demonstrate on an almost daily basis, amid calls for effective measures to solve the years-long crisis.
The Lebanese objected to the decision to ration hours of electricity supply, amid calls for an escalation against the Ministry of Energy, as Lebanon suffers from a severe crisis in the electricity supply, which has caused power outages for 20 hours on an almost daily basis. Experts and political analysts stressed the need for a sustainable project that addresses the worsening electricity crisis, which increases and troubles the Lebanese citizen.
Lebanese political analyst Mahmoud Fakih said that electricity supply in Lebanon is almost non-existent, and does not exceed two hours, even in the capital, Beirut, and most of the population depends on neighborhood generators that are monopolized by some parties.
He added to “Al-Ittihad”, that the electricity sector wasted by Lebanon 40% of the total public debt, and its cost exceeded 40 billion dollars, and until this moment, the Lebanese suffer from complete darkness on the pretext of the lack of fuel to operate the factories, while the fuel oil is available to the monopolists of the generators scattered on the entire map. Lebanese.
The Lebanese political analyst explained that the solution is a sustainable project that addresses the crisis and matches the pricing with the requirements of the market so that the Lebanese are independent from the clutches of monopolies, considering that the Lebanese need statesmen and specialists with a patriotic sense that puts the interest of the citizen above the private interest, but the hydrocarbon sector is a sector on which the parties depend for their financing. In periods and is still in money laundering and smuggling.
Lebanon is seeking to solve the problem, through a plan supported by the United States, using Egyptian gas, via Jordan and Syria, to operate a power station in the north of the country, which experts considered an opportunity to reduce the electricity shortage crisis during the coming period.
For his part, the Lebanese political analyst Ibrahim Bayram indicated that the energy crisis has worsened in the past few days, in an unprecedented manner, pointing out that most of the electricity production plants are not working due to the lack of fuel, which is renewed with any financial crisis in Lebanon.
Bayram added to Al-Ittihad that the situation now with the caretaker government, the division over the head of state, the public sector strike, and independent interests, including electricity, are suffering, prompting citizens to attack the Ministry of Energy, especially in light of the doubling of private subscription prices, which have become catastrophic for citizens’ limited incomes and raising Subsidies for fuel what constituted an escalating crisis.
The Lebanese political analyst considered that resolving the crisis requires the speedy demarcation of the border with Israel, obtaining Lebanon’s right to gas and oil, and forming a national government, not a business case to ease political tension.
The Lebanese political analyst, Muhammad Saeed Al-Raz, agreed that the issue of electricity in Lebanon is the mother of problems and crises 12 years ago, until now.
He explained to Al-Ittihad that if the public debt under which Lebanon exceeds one hundred billion dollars, the Electricité du Liban will bear half of this debt, adding that electricity in all countries of the world is a source of profit for the national treasury, except in Lebanon, which is a cave of corruption and a source of illegal wealth.
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