Power outage plunges parts of Afghanistan into darkness

Many residents of Kabul and some other major cities in Afghanistan complain about longer and more frequent power outages, saying that they have electricity for about two hours a day.

Kabul, with a population of more than five million, needs more than 700 megawatts of electricity. Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat, the country’s national power utility, currently supplies only 30% of the capital’s electricity needs.

The electricity imported from Uzbekistan was cut off about two weeks ago due to technical problems.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs on Sunday asked Uzbekistan to reconnect the electricity.

“I request the esteemed officials of Uzbekistan to uphold their commitment and supply electricity to Afghanistan in accordance with the contract. People need electricity both during winter and summer. Afghanistan is in dire need of electricity in terms of agriculture and water extraction,” Amir Khan Muttaqi said.

Power outage has also affected factories.

“Unfortunately, after the power cut from Uzbekistan, industrial parks have been without power for the past 15 days, and 90 percent of our factories have stopped operations, which has a negative impact on our domestic production. We hope that we will have an alternative and use domestic resources,” said Sakhi Ahmad Peyman, the deputy of the Chamber of Industries and Mines.

Residents of Kabul also complain about the increase in power outages and want the problem to be solved soon.

“We request the officials of Breshna Company to give priority to solving the electricity problem because the weather is very cold,” said Habibullah, a resident of Kabul.

“Every year, problems appear during winter. Why don’t they build dams in our country? How long will we depend on others,” said Abdul Sami, a resident of Kabul.

Da Afghanistan Breshna Company says that efforts are underway to solve the electricity problem.

“We assure the people that the leadership of Da Afghanistan Breshna Company and the leadership of the Islamic Emirate are working day and night to solve the electricity problem,” said Hikmatullah Akhundzadeh, head of DABS for Kabul.

Imported electricity from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan was cut two weeks after the electricity contract between the two countries was extended for another year.