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Ethiopia: Blackouts, drought put Ethiopians in distress
Ethiopia’s business community and the public in general would be better prepared to carry on with their daily activities if there were regular official reports on electricity availability in the country, the weekly Capital newspaper stated. Expressing public irritation over the now commonplace outages here, the paper suggested that businesses deserve a compensation for the losses incurred due to power shortage. “It would do a world of good if government, financial institutions and borrowers create a discussion forum to mitigate the situation,” said the paper’s editorial this week, indicating that export-oriented industries have experienced a negative impact of the daily outages.
Noting that the sector was in danger of stagnation as a result of blackouts, the paper called for “intervention in the form of a mandatory grace period on business loan repayments” because the sector heavily depends on support from local and international financial institutions.
Weather vagaries and drought over a large part of the country forced Ethiopia Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) since March this year to ration electricity supply on a daily basis as the water level in the reservoirs serving its hydro-electric power plants has dropped.
Meanwhile, EEPCo has announced extension of power-shedding time in every location to 14 hours on each blackout day and five days per week.
As the adage says, misfortunes never come single.
The drought has not only crippled industries that depend on electricity but also water supply in several areas including the capital, Addis Ababa.
Getting clean and sufficient water supply for the residents is one of the challenges facing the city’s new administrative council.
According to the government-owned daily, ‘The Ethiopian Herald’, other priorities of the council are promotion of good governance and curbing unemployment as well as housing problems that the city’s swelling population has to grapple with.
“The new city council needs to work out strategies and plans to resolve the multi-faceted problems that face the city,” said the daily, urging the public to work closely with the new administration under Mayor Kuma Demeksa.
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Addis Ababa – 24/05/2008
Pana
