Turbines producing electricity in the Gaza power plant have stopped working completely after their fuel supplies ran out the Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority announced on Sunday morning.
The energy authority blamed the Palestinian government in Ramallah for the electricity problem in Gaza and appealed to it to refrain from levying taxes on diesel fuel that powers the plant.
It expressed its readiness to purchase tax-free fuel supplies for the power plant.
The plant’s renewed shutdown means that Gaza’s roughly two million people will have to rely on about 143 megawatts of electricity supplied by Israel and Egypt.
Such development could leave Gazans with four hours or less per day of electrical power and would aggravate the ongoing shortage of drinkable water. Under normal circumstances they get power on alternating cycles of eight-hours.
The plant’s closure could also affect the work of the Gaza desalination plant which produces clean and potable water. Some 96 percent of Gazan water is undrinkable.
In fact Gaza’s power needs are about 450 to 500 megawatts per day but it often gets less than half of that.
All the plant’s fuel purchased in January with funding from Qatar and Turkey contributed to keeping it operational alternately for only three months.
