Up to 13 hours of electricity cuts in Ecuador due to severe drought

Up to 13 hours of electricity cuts in Ecuador due to severe drought

Ecuador live this Thursday with power outages of up to 13 hoursa measure caused by the reduction in hydroelectric power generated due to drought and which led the Government to request, without much success, that working days be suspended.

The reservoirs register levels of alarming storage on the eve of a binding referendum on the measures proposed by President Daniel Noboa to try to stop the growing violence linked to drug trafficking. The movement in the large urban transport stations of Quito was the usual, despite the Government’s request.

The buses left for various points in the capital, avoiding the lack of traffic lights in some sectors, where the electrical service had been suspended since 07:00 local time (12:00 GMT).

The beginning of power outages in Ecuador

The cuts began on Sunday without warningfor shorter periods, but they have become longer as the days go by.

ecuador-mexico conflict.jpg

The conflicts in the country continue.

Courtesy CNN.

“Yesterday they took me from eight to eleven (in the morning) and it is the time it takes to work. Today with eight hours (of suspension) it is going to be worse, it affects us a lot,” Segundo Guacho tells AFP. The 45-year-old man owns a computer rental business in the center of Quito and maintains that in three days has lost nearly $200 in revenue due to the interruption of service.

He The Executive suspended the working day in the public and private sectors these Thursdays and Fridays, as well as the classes, after announcing that the Mazar (the most important) and Paute reservoirs, both in the southern Andes, are in “critical conditions” with storage levels of 0% and 4%, respectively.

The flow in the largest hydroelectric plant, Coca Codo Sinclair (northern Amazon), with the capacity to generate 1,500 MW of power to cover 30% of the national demandl, is 60% of the historical average.

What happens in Ecuador

The government assured that this Sunday, when about 13.6 million Ecuadorians are called to the polls, “there will be no blackouts”. The main axis of the consultation It is the fight against organized crime that is bleeding the country dry.

“Much of the sacrifice that we Ecuadorians are making today and tomorrow and on Saturday is to (…) guarantee that the elections take place because what is at stake in the consultation is national security”, The Secretary of Communication, Roberto Izurieta, said this Thursday on the Teleamazonas channel.

Noboa declared an emergency in the electricity sector on Tuesday and requested the resignation of the then Minister of Energy, Andrea Arrobo, after untimely rationing that began on Sunday. Besides denounced “sabotage” in the electrical area as one of the causes of the cuts, as well as the effects of global warming.

The warnings about the energy crisis “were not given in time”Izurieta complained. He government considers this an “attack” by its political enemies facing the popular consultation with which it seeks to give, for example, the green light to the extradition of compatriots and increase penalties for organized crime crimes.

Complaints from citizens in Ecuador

The Citizens complained this Thursday about the disorganization in the cutssince the schedules established by the electrical companies are not met and there were unforeseen suspensions.

Segundo Guacho tells AFP that he is worried and his plan, in case the emergency spreads, is to seek a loan to buy an electric generator that allows you to continue with your business.

According to Izurieta, Ecuador had “an energy policy for the last 20 years that has not adapted to the climate crises“.

TOThe water problem in Ecuador was added to the fact that Colombia stopped selling energy as a measure to deal with the serious drought associated with the El Niño phenomenon, which has Colombian reservoirs below 30% of their capacity.

Source: Ambito

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