Quito: Parts of Ecuador experienced power outages of up to 13 hours on Thursday in an electricity crisis caused by a drought that damaged key hydroelectric reservoirs.
Government orders to keep workers at home have left lights out in some neighborhoods, especially when buses run in the capital, Quito.
The power crisis comes just days before a key referendum on Sunday in which Ecuadorians will decide whether to take stronger action against organized crime in a country plagued by bloody gang wars.
Power supplier Emelnorte cuts power in northern Ecuador until 1:00.
“The world cut me off from eight to eleven (in the morning) and that’s work time. Day eight hours (off) will make it worse,” said Segundo Gaucho 45 years old. Computer rental in Quito.
According to the Ecuadorian Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (INAMHI), most of the country received below average rainfall for this time of year, except for some areas in the north.
Last October, when former President Guillermo Lasso signed an agreement with Colombia to import electricity, Ecuador was hit by a drought-induced power crisis.
Faced with a severe dry spell, Colombia this week stopped exporting electricity to Ecuador.
The power outage started without warning on Sunday and gradually worsened.
Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, declared a state of emergency in the electricity sector on Tuesday and replaced Energy Minister Andrea Arrobo, who said the government was involved in a sabotage plan to hide the severity of the crisis.
Noboa has accused his political opponents of targeting the electricity industry in an attempt to block the referendum on organized crime.
Government prosecutors filed a complaint against “22 saboteurs who want to harm all of Ecuador.”
Quito ordered all workers to stay at home on Thursday and Sunday.
“Most Ecuadorians are sacrificing today, tomorrow and Saturday … to guarantee the elections,” said Roberto Izurieta, the president’s communications secretary. , he told the Teleamazonas channel.
Among the questions in Sunday’s referendum is whether to allow the military to be deployed to fight organized crime or increase penalties for those convicted of drug crimes.
Izurieta said the warning about the energy crisis was “not given in time” and the government saw it as an “attack” by its political enemies ahead of the referendum.
Izurieta said that Ecuador has “an energy policy that has not been adapted to the climate crisis in the last 20 years”.
A government statement said the reservoir serving the country’s Mazar hydroelectric dam was empty, while the nearby Paute dam was at four percent.
Water at Coca Codo Sinclair, Ecuador’s largest hydroelectric plant, is 40 percent below average.
