Syrians Angry at Power Cuts

SMN No. 7, August 12, 2010

Syrians have been complaining about ongoing power shortages  across the country, which have been caused by increased energy demand resulting from a heat wave.

One blogger, Husain Ghurez, criticised the performance of the electricity ministry as unacceptable, saying the minister, Ahmad Qusai Kayali, “bears the moral and legal responsibility for turning citizens’ lives into an unbearable hell”.

He said that in spite of all official promises to solve the problem, the situation remains bad and official explanations for the difficulties are “nonsense”.

He said that he had been without electricity for eight hours a day, six days running.

He wondered ironically whether officials  responsible for electricity in the country have committed the crime of “weakening the nation sentiment, and national feeling”, an accusation which is commonly leveled  against political prisoners in Syria.

A contributor to the forum of Edleb al-Khadra (the Green Edleb)  wrly noted that he become friends with a member of the electricity emergencies department as he had been calling him every day.

He said he started to schedule his day and work according to the power cuts.

The blogger demanded the electricity minister tell the public how long the situation would last and how he intended to solve it.

On Facebook, a group complaining about the power shortages in Syria is growing fast. Since it was established last summer, it has gathered more than 4600 members.

“Let’s talk loudly and say stop electricity cuts….we live in the 21st century,” the group states.

The group included many ironic comments. One member wrote, “What do air, rain, snow, cold, heat have in common? Each of them could be reason to cut the electricity [in Syria]”.

The electicity minister, Kayali, was quoted recently by the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan admitting that “the situation is critical”.

He added that there were fears of higher temperatures and that the government decided to ration electricity because the country has no reserves to generate more electricity when needed.