‘We live like rats’: Gazans fume over power shortage

A Palestinian chants slogans during a demonstration against chronic power cuts in Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on January 12, 2017. Khalil Hamra / AP Photo

GAZA // For weeks, Gazans have been making do with less than half their usual electricity supply – barely a few hours a day – with no sign of the shortages alleviating anytime soon, fuelling distress and frustration among the population.

Normally, Gaza’s power alternates on eight-hour cycles, with generators providing electricity to those who can afford it in the down times. But since late last year, there have been only three or four hours of electricity a day in total.

Running costs for generators have soared, leaving many with no choice but to light and heat their homes with candles or by burning scrap wood. If the power should come on during the night, that is when families wash themselves and their clothes.

“We live like rats,” said Mazen Abu Reyala, an unemployed fisherman and father of five, sitting around a primitive stove that he uses to warm his house.

“Should I wait until we get burnt? Or should I wait to return home and see that my children burnt themselves because they lit candles?”

On Thursday clashes with police erupted in the Jabalya refugee camp after thousands of people gathered to protest. Gunfire was heard. A police spokesman said forces were trying to prevent the crowd from storming the offices of the power company.

Some citizens blame Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Gaza. Hamas officials blame the rival Palestinian Authority, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and still others point the finger at Israel.

The simple explanation is that Gaza requires 450-500 Megawatts of power a day but is receiving barely a third of that. About 30MW is produced by its own ageing power plant, 30MW is imported from Egypt and 120MW comes from Israel.

With temperatures dropping to four or five degrees centigrade at night, the demand for power is high.

The local power plant, which was heavily damaged by Israeli bombing during a war in 2006 and remains only at about half of potential capacity, could produce slightly more, but there is no money for the fuel needed to boost output.

With unpaid consumer bills of around $1 billion, the power company is not in a position to seek more credit. Officials say they need $500 million to overhaul the power network. But with Israel and Egypt maintaining a tight blockade on Gaza, getting replacement parts is difficult.

The Palestinian Authority, which buys electricity from Israel and Egypt, normally transfers fuel to Gaza and exempts it from most taxes. But because of its own financial constraints, it is no longer offsetting all the tax.

Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Hamas was open to solutions and accused the Palestinian Authority of using the crisis as a mean to “damage Hamas’s image and sanction Gaza’s people”.

Israel’s electricity company could supply more power, and has provisions in place to do so, but it has not been paid for all the electricity it has supplied in the past and wants financial guarantees before it delivers more.

And, Gaza’s two million residents grow increasingly angry.

Adel Al Mashwakhy, a local comedian, was detained on Wednesday, hours after posting a video on Facebook criticising Hamas, saying “There is no work, no crossings, no food, no water to drink and also there is no electricity. Enough Hamas. Enough, enough, enough. We want electricity, we want electricity, we want electricity.” The video soon notched up 180,000 views.

At night, Gaza is pitch black, with no lights in the streets or in homes, and groups huddling for warmth around small fires on street corners. Generators hum from some factories and wealthier households, but most cannot afford to run diesel generators 20 hours a day.

Bakery owner Haitham Badra said he had suffered huge losses because he had to buy more fuel for generators.

“We used to buy 1,500 litres of diesel a week. Now we have to buy 4,000 litres at a cost of 20,000 shekels ($5,250) a week,” Mr Badra said. “If this goes on much longer, all bakeries and restaurants in Gaza will collapse.”

Tareq Lubbad, spokesman of the power company, said Gaza normally needed 450MW a day, but that had increased due to high winter demand, and he warned of worse to come.

“If no substantial solutions are found the crisis will escalate and hours without power will increase,” he said.

* Reuters