Lebanon has ran out of energy, after two of the country’s largest power plants were shut down owing to a fuel shortage.
A government official reportedly stated that the ‘power outage in the country will continue for a few days’.
‘The thermoelectric plant stopped at Zahrani power station just one day after the Deir Ammar plant stopped on Friday when diesel supplies were exhausted, he added’.
The official said the state electricity company would try to use the army’s fuel oil reserve to operate the power plants temporarily, but that would not happen anytime soon.
According to Lebanon’s state-run NNA news agency, authorities are attempting to “partially restore electricity to several Lebanese districts by supplying production units with gasoline from reserves available for severe requirements”.
Local residents began cutting down roads in various locations in protest of the degradation of their living conditions as a result of the power outages, which also created water shortages, according to NNA.
Many Lebanese rely on private diesel generators, which are now in limited supply.
An economic crisis has crippled Lebanon, which has worsened as imported gasoline supplies have run out. Since 2019, the value of the Lebanese currency has dropped by 90%.
Meanwhile, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, the visiting Iranian Foreign Minister, stated that his nation will continue to deliver oil shipments to Lebanon in order to help the country solve its fuel scarcity issue.
Since August, the Iran-backed Lebanese Shia Hezbollah organization has been delivering Iranian gasoline shipments to Lebanon, despite the country’s economic collapse causing fuel shortages.