Photo by: AFP

« The rationing varied from 10 hours out of 24, in summer 2007, to 16 this summer”, said Ahmad Ismail, a 45-year-old grocer and a father of 4 children who lives in a popular area in Tripoli (North). If the three-hour electricity shortages are less perceptible in Beirut, the internal regions suffer from a long-term lack every day. “I pay three bills at the end of the month: the bill of the State and the subscription to the generator of my grocery and my house”, complains Ahmad, “The total amount would be 200 dollars, and I earn hardly 700 dollars per months”.

The subscription to the generator, which is a common pattern in Lebanon, has recently turned into a nightmare with the enormous increase of the fuel oil price; in other words, the price of 20 litters jumped from 20.000 Lebanese Pounds (around 13 dollars) to almost 40.000 Lebanese Pounds. The heavy deficit of the public company “Electricité du Liban (EDL)” is increasing day after day, and the jump of the petroleum price is making it even worse. “With 22 dollars for the barrel, one kilowatt is equal to a 9-dollar-deficit. However, with a 140-dollar barrel, it is equal to more than 60 dollars”, declared the Minister of Finance, Jihad Azour, according to whom the deficit expected for the year 2008 will reach almost 1, 3 billion dollars. « During the last three years, the Treasury covered the deficit of EDL with 3,5 billion dollars”, he added. “This is the third biggest spending post of the State after the debt service and the salaries”, said the minister, “and those unexpected amounts render the public finance heavier” knowing that the debt is reaching more than 40 billion dollars.