HERAT CITY (SW) – As the cold weather intensifies in Herat, many residents of the province are complaining about the insufficient access to electricity.
Sima, a resident of the “Bakrabad” area in Herat city, says that recently, she has only had access to electricity for three to four hours a day. She adds, “Sometimes, we don’t have electricity for 48 hours. When the electricity comes, it’s only for three to four hours, and it’s usually at inconvenient times. Most of the time, it comes at midnight and goes off by 7 a.m.”
Mohammad Ali, another resident of Herat, expresses frustration over the limited access to electricity, saying, “We want the government to provide electricity so that the people can be saved from their suffering.”
Some residents of Herat complain that due to frequent power outages, they are unable to keep their homes warm, especially with the rising cost of fuel.
Mina, another resident, says that the increased frequency of power outages combined with economic difficulties has made life harder for her. She adds, “Wealthy people have generators and they have access to water and electricity, but we have neither. My sons are getting sick, and life is very difficult for us.”
Electricity in Herat, which is primarily supplied from Iran and Turkmenistan, is occasionally cut off due to technical problems or other reasons. In the most recent instance, the imported electricity from Iran was cut off on Sunday, and the outage lasted for several hours.
Officials at the Herat Power Authority state that both Iranian and Turkmen electricity supplies are now restored. Mohammad Hanif Arbabzada, spokesperson for the Herat Power Authority, attributes the power outages in the province to overloading of the power lines. He explains, “Electricity is being supplied normally; however, sometimes outages occur in certain areas due to technical issues in the internal network, and at other times, outages happen because of the overloading of the power lines.”
The local electricity company Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) announced on Sunday, that power outages in Herat, Farah, and Nimruz provinces are mostly caused by technical problems.
