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| Neighborhoods plunged into darkness in Cairo on June 25. |
| Photo : AFP/VNA/CVN |
Elevators stop, televisions and Wi-Fi networks go out during these outages, which previously lasted an hour or two but have been lasting more than three hours in recent days. For the past year, the shortages of energy and foreign currency that have been hitting Egypt have led the government to institute these planned power cuts.
In Aswan, the major southern city, and its outskirts, where it was nearly 50 degrees in the shade in June, “the lights go out and the water stops for up to four hours a day,” says a resident of a neighboring village, who introduces himself under the assumed name of Tarek for fear of reprisals.
“In the villages, it’s worse”he said, “There is no planning, food is wasted in the refrigerators and people are suffering from heat stroke amid general indifference.”
In June, an Aswan MP, Riham Abdelnaby, reported that dozens of people had died of heat exhaustion. She called for her governorate to be exempted from the cuts, which, she said, “endanger the lives of citizens”.
With the scorching temperatures of June, the cuts became longer and more frequent, putting the Egyptians’ nerves to the test. Exasperation is even spreading to talk show hosts, usually fervent supporters of President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.
“Not a luxury”
“Electricity is not a luxury, it is a very basic right. wrote presenter Lamis al-Hadidi on Monday on X. “Power cuts deprive us of water, landline telephones, internet and they damage electrical appliances. Who will compensate people for all this?”she said.
Everyone remembers the summer of 2013, when power cuts fueled popular anger against the presidency of the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, which led to the dismissal of the head of state orchestrated by the Minister of Defense of so, Mr. Sissi.
Today, the cuts hit an Egypt facing the worst economic crisis in its history. Since 2022, the Egyptian pound has lost two-thirds of its value and last year inflation hit a record high of 40%.
On Sunday, June 30, Amr Adib, host of the popular Al-Hekaya show, criticized officials for not respecting the announced schedules. Even though, he said, everyone fears upcoming “increases in the price of electricity” envisaged by the government.
Government apology
This week, in addition to planned daytime blackouts, entire neighborhoods in Cairo have experienced nighttime blackouts lasting up to two hours. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli tried to calm the crowds by presenting “the government’s apology”while acknowledging that the three-hour power outages would continue this week.
The increase in outages, he explained, is due to the fact that a “gas field in a neighboring country”which supplies natural gas to Egypt and which he did not mention by name, was “unusable for more than 12 hours”.
He added that Egypt would spend about $1.2 billion in July, or 2.6 percent of the country’s precious foreign currency reserves, to buy fuel.
If the government intends to end the cuts “by the third week of July”, he said, these should resume in the fall before ending definitively at the end of the year. Even if there is no official report, these measures have already caused victims in Egypt.
In Aswan, ““About 40 heat-related deaths” were reported in June, Abdelnaby told local media. In Alexandria, in the north, a musician, Mohammed Ali Nasr, died after falling down a stuck elevator shaft during a breakdown.
Although most Egyptians plan their outings to avoid getting stuck in elevators, similar incidents have caused at least four deaths since last year, according to media reports.
AFP/VNA/CVN
