KABUL (SW) – As Kabul experiences unprecedented cold and the need for electricity increases, citizens say that they have access to electricity for only one to two hours a day.
Enamullah, a resident of Kabul, who is standing in front of the gate of one of the hospitals in the city, complaining about the lack of access to electricity, said: “The lack of electricity is so bad that we had to take two members of our family who fell ill due to cold to a hospital.”
Likewise, a number of other Kabul residents said that in recent days when the cold has increased, they have faced many problems due to lack of access to electricity.
Sadaqat, a resident of Kabul, said: “The electricity supply is very low and there is no electricity at night, there is no electricity during the day, the situation is difficult.”
Abdul Basir, another resident of Kabul, said: “We have electricity for only two hours or one and a half hours a day. Despite this, our electricity bill is high”.
The demand for electricity in Kabul city has increased after Uzbekistan stopped exporting electricity to Afghanistan for several days.
Officials of the electricity supply company, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat said that the Uzbek side cited the reduction of gas to produce electricity due to the cold weather in this country as the reason for the power cut.
Hekmatullah Meyvandi, the spokesperson of DABS, emphasized that according to the contract, Uzbekistan is obliged to supply electricity to Afghanistan.
“According to the contract, they are obliged to supply us with electricity, they have said that they have a technical problem and their technical problems can be felt. We are having an online meeting with the Uzbek side today and we ask them to find a solution to this problem.”
The officials, however, emphasized that they have tried to solve the problem of electricity shortage, and the Tarakhel thermal power generation device has now been activated, however, in these days and nights, Kabul alone needs at least another 620 megawatts of electricity.
“We need 700 megawatts of electricity in Kabul right now. But we only have 80 megawatts of electricity”, said Hekmatullah.
Just recently, Afghanistan extended the electricity import contract with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan until the end of 2023.
ENDS
