EDL General Manager Blames Contract Workers for Electricity Blackout
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Electricite du Liban’s general manager Kamal al-Hayek held the company’s contract workers responsible for the blackout that plunged Lebanon into darkness on Monday.
The factories are not undergoing any “maintenance or repair as there are no decisions being taken, and no meetings held but only problems moving from a floor to another” at the company, Hayek told An Nahar newspaper on Tuesday.
He also pointed out that the delay in rehabilitating the Deir Amar power plant for 15 days is part of the problem.
Energy Minister Jebran Bassil has continuously warned that the electricity crisis in Lebanon might worsen as EDL's contract employees’ strike is affecting the company’s work.
Hayek warned that the electricity maintenance has been suffering from a complete negligence for the past two months, noting that the electricity rationing reached 11-12 hours in several areas across Lebanon and 21 hours in the Greater Beirut area.
He said that the heat wave also has a major effect on the power plants.
The contract workers had been asking for their rights by road closures and by blocking the entry of full-time employees to the premises of the EDL in Beirut’s Mar Mikhael area.
Last week, the joint parliamentary committees approved the employment of qualified candidates who are currently contract workers at EDL.
However, a member of the committee of contract workers said their sit-in at the company’s headquarters will continue pending parliament’s approval of their full-time employment.
Sources told al-Liwaa newspaper that the power generation units have disconnected from the distribution network for unidentified reasons, which caused the sudden blackout.
Asked about the increase in power rationing across Lebanon, the source said there are several reasons including the halt in electricity supply from Syria and Egypt that provided Lebanon with 250 megawatts.
The source noted that Lebanon requires around 2,600 megawatts during the summer but the production of the current power plants doesn’t exceed 650 megawatts.
19 June 2012, 10:04
03
lets live off 24/7 local generators at the government price of electricity.
19 June 2012, 17:03
00
nchala kel wazir w neyib b7ess nhar wahad billi am b7esso cha3eb ken hegar aw ntahar aw we3e damiro lmayet
19 June 2012, 18:58
00
3e2bel a political party runs in Lebanon on one platform: electricity, economy, and security. No M8/14, no obsession with Syria, simply three prerogatives-- electricity, economy, and security. I don't care if the devil himself came to lead this party, this is what we need, the bare essentials and we have a bunch of morons blackmailing the country for jobs while being supported by certain political sides. Don't give them jobs, even if we needed them we don't need punks with cheap ethics who resort to these cheap tactics.
19 June 2012, 10:45
12
if it is their fault, then why don't you hire them?
this is amazing!
if they are important fr the well functioning of the power plants, then hire them, if not, then this is a political statement.
both ways: this minister should go!
19 June 2012, 14:54
12
stupidity.. it s just a struggle between berry and bassil..nothing to do with M14 ... blame your incompetent gvt...
19 June 2012, 11:14
04
A weak state that no one respects! Everyone "protests" in their own way. I don't know the details of this issue but no matter what their protest, in a decent country, would never be allowed to affect the whole population like this.
19 June 2012, 12:29
02
According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitive Report for 2011-2012, Lebanon ranks 141 out of 142 in “quality of electricity supply.” We are behind Angola with only Nepal ranking lower... I guess the only light at the end of the tunnel is that once we are dead last in electricity, internet speed, corruption and other metrics, maybe we will stop blaming this party or that party and actually start electing governement representatives based on merit and competance instead of secterian and feudal loyalties! Ok, time to get stop dreaming and get back to the dark reality...
19 June 2012, 12:41
00
Thumbs up for you my friend! Indeed, people like you give me hope.
19 June 2012, 13:19
03
the problem ya teta is that we have no respect for each other and no respects for the country itself...
19 June 2012, 13:43
12
MR FT, you are looking at from one side only. You are looking at from the beneficial side but other people are not willing to pay political price for the generocity or Iran. They'd rather live in darkenss for a while rather than live in darkness for the rest of lives.
19 June 2012, 13:52
03
may god burn in hell the guys who fired the late georges frem when he was wazir el taka
if they did mr frem plan we would be exporting electricity now
19 June 2012, 17:45
20
Your AOun and Noussralla will be in hell with your kind soon enough you ignorant coward...
19 June 2012, 17:49
01
Have respect for the dead...basic human decency FlameThrower. You are better than that!
19 June 2012, 14:44
11
Hey FPMrs, is Bassil on vacation again in Europe or the Bahamas?
19 June 2012, 14:56
13
yes! buying or whatever from iran is a political move... instead of thinking of solutions to restructure the whole corrupted EDL... but that would step on the privileges of some politicians from M8 (berry for example against bassil who wants a deal with iran...)
19 June 2012, 18:32
01
well guys,i havent read any smart comments or solutions to this problem...No1 should rely or expect governments to solve your problems..Best solution I reckon would be solar panel ,and middle finger to the government...in this way u dont have to rely or care about the petrol prices etc.. and its clean energy source...Short term is expensive not that much but still more expensive than diesel and other energy source,but for the longrun is much much cheaper if you do the math...
