Lebanon’s Minister of Energy and Water Walid Fayyad met with Minister of Economy and Trade Amin Salamon on Monday, January 17, to discuss increasing the hours of power within the country.
Lebanon’s economic crisis — described by the World Bank as one of the worst in the world — has seen its currency lose around 95 percent of its purchasing power, which has caused fuel shortages that has led the national power-supply company to limit supply to just a few hours per household every day.
It is under these circumstances that the two ministers met “over matters of common interest that mostly involve the citizens’ pressing concerns, specifically the role of both ministries in dealing with the financial fluctuations of the US dollar exchange rate.”
Fayad was quoted by official sources as saying: “Our most important goal is to increase the hours of EDL’s power supply to become steady 8-10 hours in the near future by securing Egyptian gas and Jordanian electricity; we’re hopeful that the burden of the monthly electricity bill becomes smaller.”
The minister pointed out that it was necessary to deal with the situation of private generators, whose operators have thrived as demand for electricity increased hand in hand with prices.
“Yet, we seek to simultaneously reconcile the interests of the citizen, who needs electricity at the lowest cost, and that of generator owners, in a bid to ensure the permanence of their work at the current stage.”
Salam said: “The problems of the electricity sector are known to all; work is underway on short-term solutions to increase the hours of power supply, pending sustainable solutions that involve the establishment of power stations in Lebanon, which will positively affect all sectors.”
This comes even as a TRENDS investigation revealed that billions of dollars are missing from the central bank of Lebanon.
The bank’s governor, Riad Salameh, himself stands accused of irregularities both within his country and abroad.