KATMANDU: Nepalese citizens will be allowed only eight hours of electricity a day starting Sunday because of low water levels in reservoirs that drive hydroelectric plants. The government owned Nepal Electricity Authority announced citizens will face 16 hour power outages daily until the situation improves.
The state utility imposed 12 hour power cuts each day just last month but increased blackout hours because of the worsening power crisis. Nepal's government is planning to install expensive diesel powered plants. The Association of Private Health Institutions warned Sunday it would soon reduce services because it cannot afford to run generators for so long.
Nepal produces only about half its electricity needs, in part because of unusually low levels this year in reservoirs that feed the country's hydroelectric plants. The amount of power that Nepal imports from neighboring India is not enough to make up the shortfall. Construction of new power plants was hampered by a decade long communist insurgency that ended in 2006.
