2024-09-25 07:50:31
Ecuador announced Saturday it would bring forward power outages scheduled to begin Monday a day earlier in the face of the worst drought in 61 years, which has also led to agricultural problems, disruption to drinking water supplies and hundreds of forest fires.
Rationing will take place between 08:00 and 17:00 local time (13:00 and 22:00 GMT) on Sunday in 12 of the 24 provinces, including Carchi (bordering Colombia in the north) and the six Amazonian provinces (five of which border Peru), the presidency said in a statement.
“On Sunday at noon (17:00 GMT), after assessing the water situation in the region, the country and each province, any additional measures that may be necessary will be announced,” he added.
The drought has brought critical levels to the reservoirs of hydroelectric plants that cover 70% of national demand.
The government had planned further blackouts between Monday and Thursday, which were to take place in certain sectors between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. local time (3:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. GMT).
On Wednesday night, Ecuador suspended power for up to six hours during the same time, but to perform maintenance on the transmission system.
The presidency said Sunday’s power cuts were aimed at “protecting water resources” after 71 days of no rain.
Faced with the drought, the National Emergency Operations Committee (COE) held a permanent session on Thursday and declared 15 provinces, including the Andean province of Pichincha, whose capital is Quito, on red alert.
The agency decided on Saturday to extend the red alert, which allows for prioritizing resources to deal with the emergency, to four other provinces.
The Chamber of Commerce of the port of Guayaquil (southwest and commercial center) estimates that the nation loses about 12 million dollars for each hour of blackout.
“During the blackouts recorded at the beginning of the year, losses exceeded 1.44 billion dollars (1.4% of GDP),” the union said two weeks ago.
Due to low water levels or the accumulation of sediment in the dams caused by torrential rains that have not been permanent this year, as well as “human error”, Ecuador has suffered further rationing in 2024. In April there were cuts of up to 13 hours a day.
Between August 23 and September 18, the region has suffered 1,337 forest fires, which have consumed 23,452 hectares of vegetation, according to authorities.
Since January, the fire has scorched some 35,000 hectares of vegetation, leaving 11 people injured and some 45,000 farm animals dead.
