After fuel woes, Sharjah grapples with power cuts

Friday, Jun 10, 2011

Gulf News

Sharjah In the latest series of events, residents not only have to suffer from a petrol shortage but they are now bracing themselves for power cuts.

Families have expressed concern over power cuts that affected several areas in Sharjah last week, and emphasised their worries over whether it will become a regular occurrence in the summer months.

Abdul Hamid, who lives at Bank Street in Al Rolla, said his building had its electricity connection cut off last Tuesday for an hour and a half.

“The power went off from 11.30pm until 1am, and it took me completely by surprise. I thought that the situation had been solved last year. I called the hotline number but nobody responded. This is not the first time it has happened this month, and I had to go through a power outage last Sunday as well from 10.30pm until midnight,” he explained.

Abdul Hamid’s neighbouring buildings were also affected by a power cut, which forced families to leave their apartments and sit on the pavements of the main road.

Useless hotline

The Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority’s (Sewa) hotline number is 991, but residents claim that the number is useless. Another resident in Samnan said he tried to call the number last week after a five-hour power cut in his villa, but his calls went unanswered.

Jaris Thanari, who lives on Al Wahda Street, suffered a power cut in his building last.

“The power went off from 11am to 1pm and although I was busy at work in Jebel Ali, my wife stayed at home to collect the children when they arrived from school at 12pm.”

He added: “Last year was horrible because my wife and two children were stuck in the elevator for two hours in July. The authorities should schedule the date and time of each power outage so that consumers can mentally and physically prepare for the nightmare.”

After the cut in 2010 that affected hundreds of residents for longer than a month, Sewa issued an apology and vowed to solve the problem.

Sewa attributed the power failures to a problem in the natural gas pipeline which feeds the main power station, and said it was forced to deal with the emergency by cutting off the power for a number of hours in some districts.

However, Sewa was unavailable for comment after Gulf News tried to contact them several times yesterday.

The authorities should schedule the date and time of each power outage so that consumers can mentally and physically prepare for the nightmare.”

By Mariam M. Al Serkal?Staff Reporter