Blackouts to resume in Gaza as fuel runs out
Reageer (0)26-9-2010
GAZA (Ma’an) – Gaza Strip’s only power station stopped one of its generators on Saturday morning due to fuel shortages as crossing terminals into the Strip remain closed for a third day in a row.
According to the Gaza Energy Authority's spokesman Jamal Dardasawi, the plant is down to one generator, though it has three which are in operating condition.
Dardasawi said the shortage was a direct result of the crossings closure, noting the terminals closed on Thursday morning as Jewish people in Israel began observing the Sukkot holiday.
By Saturday afternoon, electricity supplies across central Gaza are expected to be reduced to a few hours in rolling blackouts. Dardasawi said the blackouts would continue until fuel was delivered on Sunday when crossings were expected to re-open.
The latest set of blackouts come despite labored coordination efforts between the Palestinian Authority and the GEA, disputes between which were the source of at least three periods of power cuts in Gaza.
Disputes began shortly after January when the European Union handed over control of fuel deliveries to Gaza to the PA, which said it was struggling to make the payment for the fuel, blaming the GEA for failing to collect some $2 billion in bills due from Gaza residents.
Rounds of blackouts continued until mid-summer, when bill payments began coming from the GEA, and disappeared when the PA began deducting payments automatically from all of the estimated 50,000 PA civil servants in the coastal enclave.
Complaints ensued when employees who were not behind on bill payments also had the standard sum of 170 shekels ($46) deducted from paychecks.
During his announcement that blackouts were expected on Saturday, Dardasawi also said that public sector employees who had money taken from their paycheck unnecessarily could go to the head office of GEA and fill out forms for a reimbursement.
Source
