Conflict Incident Report

Residents in Lebanon's southern district of Nabatieh complained of frequent electricity cuts, arguing that it causes serious harm to the organizations, stores and households in the area.

A committee tasked with following up on the matter demanded a solution to the crisis that has been ongoing for a month and a half.

"At a time when electricity feed is increasing in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, electricity feed in our areas is decreasing, despite the fact that the electricity comes from the Tyre and Zahrani power plants," the committee said in a statement carried out by the National News Agency.

The committee deemed this shortage "inexplicable," adding that there isn’t a fair distribution of electricity between the cities and areas of Lebanon.

"The electricity we get is barely 25 percent of what our area needs. We condemn this injustice to our city,” the committee said.

At the end of April, Baalbeck suffered a week-long power cut because diesel oil contractors had stopped providing the city’s power plant with fuel.

Lebanon has been plagued with a chronic electricity crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 Civil War, with successive governments failing to make large investments to improve the ailing sector and its outdated infrastructure.

The Energy Ministry began reviewing bids for the lease of two additional power barges off the coast to boost power output and reduce the length and frequency of the country’s electricity cuts.

Several senior officials and parties have opposed the plan, including Speaker Nabih Berri, who insisted that the tender find companies that should first and foremost pass through the government-controlled tender department.

The main idea behind the leasing of the new barges is to give the Energy Ministry and Electricite du Liban more time to build new power plants that can provide Lebanon with 24 hours of electricity in the future.