Gaza power plant to shut down by tomorrow due to lack of fuel

Wednesday April 23, 2008 00:22 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC & Agencies

The sole power plant in Gaza declared on Tuesday it will stop generating electricity for Gaza's 1.5 million residents by tomorrow evening, due to sharp shortage of gasoline, needed to generate current.

Derrar Abu Sisi, Operation Director of Gaza Power Plant/ IMEMC Images

In a statement , faxed to press today, the power plant said the Strip will suffer a deficit of 35 to 50 percent of current , because the plant only has some quantities needed for making power available for one day and few hours only.

" we have now some quantities of gasoline that only generate electricity for one day and few hours, this means we will be forced to shut down the plant by tomorrow evening", Dr, Derrar Abu Sisi, operation director of the plant, told IMEMC in an interview.

Abu Sisi confirmed that they have received no promises from the Israeli side, through European parties, that the electricity fuel will be re-channeled to the plant.

Asked by IMEMC whether the shut down of the plant will impact the residents, Abu Sisi said that half of the Gaza's population will suffer a blackout very soon, while the other essential services such as sanitation and health institutions will be impacted as well.

The Gaza power plant consumes an amount of 550 cubic meters of industrial gasoline to generate at least 65 megawatt on daily basis, Abu Sisi made clear.

The plant made contacts with the European Union for the resumption of Israeli fuel, for which the EU pay, yet the EU officials had nothing to say as the issue is related to the Israeli authorities mainly, the power official further explained.

Over the past 13 days, Israel has stopped shipping fuel to the Gaza Strip, in the wake of a Palestinian cross-border attack on the fuel terminal of Nahal Auz, to the east of Gaza city.

However, Israeli officials said this week that there are large quantities of fuel including industrial gasoline, gasoline and Benzene, in the Palestinian side of the terminal , but the Palestinians refuse to receive them.

The fuel crisis in Gaza broke out last October , when Israel began to allow reduced shipments of fuel and cooking gas to the coastal territory, within what Israel says a bid to stop homemade shells fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza onto nearby Israeli towns.

According to Palestinian concerned bodies in Gaza, Gaza's 1.5 million residents need at least 600,000 to 700,000 liters of Benzene and gasoline as well as 350 tons of cooking gas on daily basis.

Currently, all gas stations in the coastal enclave have shut down doors because of total lack of fuel and cooking gas

gaza strip | miscellaneous | news report rami at imemc dot org