The Battles of Northern Hama exacerbate The Coastal Electricity Crisis

(Zaman al-Wasl) Electricity blackout continues in the city of Latakia and most of the cities and countryside of Latakia province since Friday evening, following the Syrian resistance targeting the Mahardah power station which provides the province with electricity. 

The activist Mohammad al-Sahili explained that the entire city of Latakia witnessed a blackout on Friday evening, but the electricity returned for two hours on Saturday evening only to be cut once more with the exception of some neighborhoods such as al-Ziraat project and Tishreen suburb where state officials live. 

The Directorate for Electricity in Latakia announced that the cuts will continue for days, “while the fuel tanks in the power station are repaired and the awaited fuel shipment arrives.” The Directorate indicated that electricity will be provided for no more than four hours on a daily basis. 

The clashes in Sahel al-Ghab and Hama’s northern countryside since Friday and the shelling caused damages to the fuel tanks in Mahardah electrical power station and ignited a fire in the station which was visible from far away. 

Pro-regime supports called for the station to be moved away from the areas of fighting, to be moved away from cities targeted by the terrorists’ missiles, and to avoid more electrical cuts which add to the already long hours of rationing. 

Akhbar al-Sahil page directed its words to the regime government authorities, “for five years you claimed the reason for the electrical cuts was that armed fighters are targeting the Mahardah power station, can you not move it to the coast or set up an alternative station, or you are using this excuse to continuously cut off the electricity because you are unable to provide it continuously.”

Latakia and the coastal areas are witnessing long periods of rationing with the exception of certain villages and neighborhoods where high ranking state officials live. The current and former ministers of electricity promised to lower the number of hours the electricity is cut or cancel the cuts entirely, but the end to rationing has yet to happen.