by thearabweekly.com — BEIRUT – Lebanon’s lights may go off this month because cash for electricity generation is running out, a lawmaker said on Thursday, as the country grapples with a deep economic crisis. Lebanon’s parliament had approved a $200 million emergency loan to finance fuel imports for power generation in March, but a committee reviewing the loan has yet to approve it. “We should not forget that starting May 15, gradual darkness will start,” said Nazih Negm, a member of parliament, according to a government statement released after he met the caretaker finance and energy ministers. The Lebanese have long learned to live with regular power cuts that run for at least three hours a day in the capital and much longer in other areas, because the state’s power plants cannot meet demand. Many people rely on private generators. But the financial crisis has exacerbated the heavily-indebted nation’s problems, as the government struggles to find enough foreign exchange to pay for fuel and other basic imports.

The loan, approved by lawmakers in March, is being reviewed by a constitutional committee, which is studying whether it is lawful. The government resigned after a massive blast in Beirut in August and is now acting in a caretaker capacity. “We hope that the constitutional committee does not take a month to reach its decision because the situation can’t wait,” Negm said, according to the government statement. Lebanon usually keeps enough fuel for about two months or so, as it is too costly to hold strategic reserves for longer. The economic meltdown, the biggest crisis since the end of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, has fuelled unrest, locked depositors out of their accounts and hammered the currency, which has lost around 90% of its value against the dollar. Earlier in March, Lebanon’s caretaker energy minister warned the country would plunge into “total darkness” at the end of the month if no money was secured to buy fuel for power stations.

Caretaker energy minister Raymond Ghajar warned the state electricity company, Electricite du Liban, was strapped for cash. “Lebanon could head towards total darkness at the end of the month if Electricite du Liban is not provided with financial aid to buy fuel,” he said at the time. Ghajar, who was speaking after meeting Lebanese President Michel Aoun, warned of repercussions on all sectors if the power went out. “Imagine your life without electricity, internet, phones, hospitals or vaccines… It’s surreal to live in the 21st century without electricity,” he said.

Ghajar has called for emergency funding for the state power company to continue providing power, until a larger loan is approved by parliament. Until now the electricity company had been functioning on the remains of a loan allocated under the 2020 budget, but the 2021 budget has not yet been passed as the country struggles with twin economic and political crises. Lebanon has been importing fuel on a shipment by shipment basis since the start of the year, after a contract with a subsidiary of Algerian state company Sonatrach ran out and was not renewed. The international community has long demanded a complete overhaul of the electricity sector, which has cost the government more than $40 billion since the end of the war.