Facebook icon
Twitter icon
e-mail icon

Sri Lanka enforces power cuts as fuel supply runs dry

Sri Lanka has enforced a series of hours long powercuts this week as the island grapples with a fuel shortage amidst it's deepening economic crisis. 

The Ceylon Electricity Board imposed a four and half hour long power cut yesterday with two hour long powercuts on the previous days to ration the country's fuel supply. 

Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila told Parliament yesterday that the government have scheduled a meeting for next month with the ambassadors of oil exporting countries in an attempt to procure fuel. 

"Even with this fuel, we will only have diesel for six days," Gammanpila reportedly said.

"We are heading for a serious fuel shortage because we do not have adequate foreign exchange to pay for fuel imports," he added. 

Earlier this week, the Bank of Ceylon released $35.3 million to pay for a 40,000 tonne shipment of diesel which was waiting at Colombo port for four days as Sri Lanka was unable to pay for the shipment. 

Sri Lanka's depleting foreign reserves have caused the prices of fuel, milk and medicine to sky rocket. Since the coronavirus outbreak, Sri Lanka's economy has been in dire straits as revenue from the tourism sector and exports have dwindled, causing the Sri Lankan rupee to depreciate. As a result, prices of imported food items and locally produced food items have increased, reaching record levels in January 2022. 

 

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.