Thursday, May 31, 2007
Demonstrations in Samawa against power, fuel shortages
Electricity
(Azzaman) - Thousands of people went to the streets in the southern Province of Muthana, protesting power and fuel shortages. The demonstration took place in Samawa, Muthana’s capital, with the organizers warning of grave consequence if the current shortages of fuel and power were not addressed. Demonstrations also took place in Rumaitha, a provincial town.
Residents say the province has been without electricity in the past few days. The total outage has had detrimental impact on public services. The outage has been aggravated by chronic fuel shortages. The crisis, officials say, is unprecedented in the province’s history. A senior provincial official, Ridaydh Dwaini, blamed the Ministry of Electricity for the crisis.
He said the province does not have its own power-generating plant and totally relies on the national grid for supplies. But the ministry says acts of sabotage, particularly of pylons, have increased substantially recently making it very hard to control the national grid. The head of Samawa fuel distribution center, Kamel Mohsen, also blamed the Ministry of Electricity, saying filling stations and distribution centers rely on continuous power supplies to operate.
Samawa has a small refinery capable of meeting nearly half of the province’s fuel demands. But Mohsen said a fuel tanker was blown up in the refinery itself recently, setting loading pumps and meters on fire.
Residents say the province has been without electricity in the past few days. The total outage has had detrimental impact on public services. The outage has been aggravated by chronic fuel shortages. The crisis, officials say, is unprecedented in the province’s history. A senior provincial official, Ridaydh Dwaini, blamed the Ministry of Electricity for the crisis.
He said the province does not have its own power-generating plant and totally relies on the national grid for supplies. But the ministry says acts of sabotage, particularly of pylons, have increased substantially recently making it very hard to control the national grid. The head of Samawa fuel distribution center, Kamel Mohsen, also blamed the Ministry of Electricity, saying filling stations and distribution centers rely on continuous power supplies to operate.
Samawa has a small refinery capable of meeting nearly half of the province’s fuel demands. But Mohsen said a fuel tanker was blown up in the refinery itself recently, setting loading pumps and meters on fire.
Labels: electricity, fuel, Muthana, Samawa
