Power cuts continue in north, hospitals impacted

Power cuts continued to grip the north on Tuesday, impacting the operation of hospitals, which are currently running on emergency generators.

On Monday, the Republic’s government received a request to transfer electricity to the north because one of its two power stations had stopped working.

Turkish Cypriot press reports claimed this was because the power station had run out of fuel.

New reports published on Tuesday said that power cuts would be held for four hours without details about how these would roll out.

Speaking to Turkish Cypriot media outlet Yeniduzen, head of the ‘electricity authority’ in the north Hassan Akayit said that more fuel is expected to be delivered to power stations in need late on Wednesday and that from Thursday less power cuts will affect the population.

“The Kyrenia power station is currently operating at 50 per cent of its total capacity, thanks to generators supplied by private Turkish company Aksa,” he said. “It’s not ideal, but it is a temporary solution.”

A general electricity shutdown that took place on Monday at 10pm caused outrage in the north, forcing ‘Prime Minister’ Unal Ustel to call an emergency ‘cabinet’ meeting, after which he explained that the company responsible for supplying energy in most areas of the north, Sideral Denizcil, failed to meet its obligations.

“We are aware of the severe disruptions caused by the power cuts and we are doing everything in our power to solve the issues,” Ustel said.

He added that international energy companies have already been asked to supply energy on a temporary basis.

“Moreover, lack of fuel is not the main cause of the power cuts, instead it is an issue linked to the maintenance of generators.”

The Turkish Cypriot medical association told news outlet Kibris that the power cuts had had severe repercussions on hospitals in the past days.

“Repeated power cuts are directly affecting the quality of health care in our hospitals,” the association said.

“Patients who rely on machines to survive cannot cope without electricity for long. We are calling on whoever is responsible for providing power to find a solution as soon as possible, before lives are lost.”

According to Kibris, at the moment there are 33 patients in the hospital in occupied Nicosia who need uninterrupted electricity to survive.