Palestine-Mandate

Gaza’s power plant has stopped generating electrical power.

Officials at the Gaza power plant confirmed just after 8:00 p.m. operations were powered down for lack of fuel.

The power plant that represented Palestinian aspirations to build the infrastructure of an independent state is no longer generating any electricity at all, after Israel reduced supplies of fuel needed to run the plant to a strict minimum.

Then, a few days shortfall in fuel deliveries last week, and a total cut-off since Thursday, pushed the problem to the limit.

Dr. Kittaneh, head of the Palestine Energy Authority in Ramallah, said that “We do have two days of fuel reserves, but we cannot operate on reserves. This is very harmful to the machines”.

“No”, he explained emphatically, “We cannot get even one more day of operations out of those reserves. We will only operate without load to keep the machines running”.

Assaf, the spokesperson for the Minister of National Infrastruture, Benjamin Ben Eliezer, said on Sunday evening that this matter is now being handled only by the Ministry of Defense.

Maher Najjar of the Gaza Coastal Municipalities Water Utility said over the phone from Gaza on Saturday evening that the situation regarding the power plant is now “scary”.

“The food is cut off, but on that we can be patient for a few days”, he said, “but getting fuel to operate the power plant is vital. There is also a shortage of electricity coming directly from Israel as well. That means the water pumping stations and the sewage pumps will fail. There will be sewage flooding for sure. It will be a catastrophe”.

Najjar said on Sunday that his company (Coastal Municipalities Water Utility) had a limited amount of some spare fuel from their supplier, and could keep some wells and sewage pumping stations operating for a couple of days, possibly until Tuesday.

But, he said, some pumps will shut down. “We are updating the fuel situation now, and checking with our area managers, and will prepare a status report, which we will distribute. We’ll do this daily”, Mr. Najjar added.

Gaza’s border crossings were ordered closed tight by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday night, in response to continuous firing of various kinds of “projectiles” from Gaza into Israel, following Israeli ground incursions and air attacks.

Tags: , Gaza

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 11:06 pm and is filed under Israel, Middle East peace process, Palestine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.