Power Cuts Engulf Lebanon as Politicians Trade Accusations of Blame

Severe power rationing is likely to exacerbate already strained ties among officials over the reasons behind the delay in the implementation of electricity projects as the scorching heat of the summer season approaches.

Premier Najib Miqati told As Safir daily published Wednesday that the government had made contacts with companies that lease power-generating ships.

“This could take approximately a month to study the performance of these companies, their productivity and costs but things are running at a fast pace,” he said.

Miqati also stressed that the government will start issuing tenders after the World Bank approved to fund several of the Energy Ministry’s projects.

“However, financial issues linked to the World Bank and Funds take time,” he said.

Despite the PM’s optimistic tone, Energy Minister Jebran Bassil has on several occasions blamed certain parties without naming them for the delay in the implementation of his projects.

On Tuesday, he urged citizens who are suffering from severe rationing to demonstrate and demand their rights.

Bassil is asking for an equal distribution of power throughout Lebanon, saying the administrative center of Beirut, which suffers only 3 hours of cuts, should be equalized with the rest of the country.

He is also pushing for the installation of high-voltage electricity lines in the Metn area of Mansouriyeh-Ain Saadeh despite the rejection of the residents.

A proposal by Bassil for the state to buy the apartment buildings, whose owners are rejecting the installation of the lines, is among the items of the cabinet’s agenda on Wednesday.

The government approved in September a $1.2 billion plan to generate 700 Megawatts of electricity, including the leasing of the ships as a short-term solution.

It called on Bassil to begin forming the Electricity Regulatory Authority and Electricite du Liban’s board of directors starting from the date of parliament’s endorsement of the bill.

But the head of Parliament’s Energy Committee, MP Mohammed Qabbani, told An Nahar daily that Bassil failed to implement the law and blamed him for the delay in the implementation of the electricity project.

“The deadline has passed and nothing happened,” Qabbani said.

The lawmaker told the newspaper that Miqati and Speaker Nabih Berri had asked a Kuwaiti delegation participating in the launching of the Litani project if the Gulf state was willing to fund the electricity project.

The director general of the Kuwait Fund, Abdul Wahhab al-Badr, told them that a delegation from the fund had visited Bassil to propose the funding of the project, Qabbani said.

“I don’t need your funding, I have the money of the Lebanese treasury,” Bassil replied, according to the MP.