Ecuador: Energy crisis worsens with daily 10-hour power outages nationwide
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.
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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.