It was a phrase uttered many a time last summer. "The lights are out." Many people thought that with the election of Daniel Ortega last fall, and the developing friendship with Venezuela (the 4th highest oil producing country worldwide) that all of Nicaragua's energy problems would finally be over.
Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Union Fenosa, the private company that distributes electricity in this country, has just announced energy rationing that will affect 106 neighborhoods in Managua, and many others around the country in the major cities, according to a story published in La Prensa. The power outages will be daily (at least this week), from 3-6 hours in duration, depending on the neighborhood and their payment/fraud history. (The neighborhood where my office is located, Nejapa, is one of those selected for the 6 hour outages. Good thing we have internet at my house, or I would get nothing done when this happens.)
The larger issue involved here is the shortage and inefficiency of the existing power producing plants in the country--so when even one of them breaks down, there is automatically a short-term shortage in the national energy supply. And of course it doesn't help that the price of imported energy these days is so high.
Just another fact of life in the developing world.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment