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

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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.

Transcript

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.

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