Sri Lanka Plunges Into 10-Hour Daily Power Cut As Fuel Crisis Worsens

Sri Lanka’s government extended the duration of daily electricity outages to 10 hours, refiners advised citizens not to queue at fuel stations as diesel runs out, and state-run hospitals don’t have enough life-saving medicines as the nation’s foreign-currency shortage spirals into a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Colombo: Sri Lanka’s Public Utilities Commission announced that there will be 10-hour daily power cuts from Wednesday. Sri Lanka is facing an unprecedented acute economic and energy crisis caused due to shortage of foreign exchange. A sudden rise in prices of key commodities and fuel shortage forced tens of thousands of people to queue for hours outside petrol filling stations. People are also facing long hours of power cuts daily.

The Ceylon Electricity Board said in a statement that they were “compelled to take demand management measures due to inadequate power generation, as a result of fuel shortage and unavailability of generators.” There is a shortage of 750 megawatt due to non availability of fuel to generate thermal power, the chair of the Public Utilities Commission Janaka Ratnayaka said.

Meanwhile, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) on Tuesday announced that there will be a diesel shortage in the country on Wednesday and Thursday.

“We were unable to unload 37,500 tonnes of diesel shipment as planned on Tuesday. Therefore, we request the public not to queue up at filling stations for diesel on March 30 and 31,” CPC Chairman Sumith Wijesinghe told the media.

Wijesinghe said the remaining stocks of diesel would be given to essential services.

Sri Lanka is facing an unprecedented acute economic and energy crisis caused due to shortage of foreign exchange. A sudden rise in prices of key commodities and fuel shortage forced tens of thousands of people to queue for hours outside petrol filling stations. People are also facing long hours of power cuts daily.