In Ecuador, citizens are dissatisfied with the ongoing energy crisis that has brought about increasingly long power cuts. From Quito, our correspondent Elena Rodriguez gives us more information.
Category
đź—ž
NewsTranscript
00:00In Ecuador, citizens showed their dissatisfaction with the ongoing energy crisis that has brought
00:05about increasingly long power cuts.
00:08From Quito, our correspondent Elena Rodriguez, with the daily Dictos.
00:18Hello colleagues, what a pleasure to greet you.
00:20Greetings also to our audience in Latin America and the world.
00:24We are with you from Quito, the capital of Ecuadorians, to inform you that the energy
00:29crisis is worsening.
00:30It is critical, said the Minister of Energy and Mines, Inés Manzano, referring precisely
00:36to the power cuts that Ecuadorians have to suffer for about 10 hours a day throughout
00:41the country.
00:45We must say that approximately a couple of months ago, in this Andean nation, there were
00:50outages of up to 14 hours a day.
00:53Those could happen again now, since it still hasn't rained in the country.
01:02That is the reason why the government claims this energy crisis is happening.
01:06However, what they don't say is that there has not been a proper maintenance of the hydroelectric
01:11power plants.
01:16We must also point out that during the weekend, one of the main power plants, the Masada power
01:21plant, stopped operating, which has led to the 10-hour power outages.
01:31The businesses and industrial sectors calculate that for each hour of blackout, Ecuador loses
01:36around 12 million dollars.
01:38So, as a consequence, they estimate that there will soon be unemployment and that, of course,
01:44could also result in an economic crisis.
01:50There is uncertainty.
01:51There is uneasiness among citizens.
01:54Ecuadorians cannot work properly or do their daily tasks normally.
02:03There is little hope that the situation can improve, since rains are not being forecast
02:09in the near future, as authorities explain that drought could go on for as far as April
02:142025.