A spate of problems affecting power, water and wheat supply is provoking public ire, reports Mohamed El-Sayed Power cuts, which occur nationwide on an almost daily basis, have lasted from one hour in big cities to several days in some rural areas. Public anger was augmented with the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, which coincided with a heat wave. Outages, which have affected other public utilities, have reportedly caused losses of hundreds of millions of pounds and prompted thousands of people to demonstrate, blocking highways in the New Valley, Suez and Fayoum governorates. Residents of many other villages are said to have threatened to block highways should the power cuts continue. To make matters worse, increased rates of theft have been reported in the governorates of Assiut and Minya. Opposition movements have organised demonstrations in several governorates to protest the power cuts and water shortages. The 6 April Youth Movement staged a march in Shobra on Sunday evening, and was due to hold a second on Tuesday in front of the cabinet. Officials at the Ministry of Electricity attributed the outages to an unprecedented surge in power consumption due to the scorching summer. Officials say that the switching on of over three million air-conditioners has resulted in a 2,500 megawatt increase in power consumption in the past few weeks. "If the ministry had not cut the power the national grid would have collapsed," said Minister of Electricity and Power Hassan Younis. Experts from the ministry have warned that shortages in electricity could worsen next year, with cuts lasting longer. "If every citizen rationalised their own use of electricity and reduced consumption by five per cent then power shortages will disappear," said Younis. The power cuts have affected vital public utilities, especially drinking water treatment plants and hospitals. Complaints about water shortages have been voiced in most urban areas as well as in the countryside. Water shortages caused by the power outages were made worse by bursts in main supply pipes which affected, among others, the upscale districts of New Cairo and 6 October governorate where residents had to queue for water brought in by trucks, or else were forced to move to relatives' homes. The shortages in electricity and water came hot on the heels of substantial increases in the price of wheat based products after Russia decided not to export wheat following a series of fires that have reduced agricultural production. Egypt, which is the world's number one wheat importer, has been forced to explore alternative markets to meet domestic demand, prompting criticism of the longstanding inability of agricultural policies to address Egypt's wheat dependency. The power cuts, which have come in the build- up to parliamentary elections, have embarrassed political leaders. President Hosni Mubarak summoned the ministers of electricity and petroleum and ordered them to find quick solutions to the problem. The meeting came after officials at the Electricity Ministry blamed the shortages on the Petroleum Ministry's failure to supply power plants with enough natural gas. Following the meeting the minister of electricity announced hundreds of millions of dollars worth of investments to build new power plants that should be online by 2027, and to generate 20 per cent of electricity from wind and solar power by 2020. Meanwhile, the Egyptian Centre for Human Rights has called on the minister of electricity to resign "for failing to provide alternative solutions to power outages". It issued a statement criticising energy policies and warning about "an uprising of the poor" should the cuts continue. The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), which has made much of its commitment to upgrading public services during recent conferences and in policy working papers, has remained silent over the crises. One leading party official told Al-Ahram Weekly that "the party has nothing to do with the recent crises". "It's out of our hands. The concerned government departments are responsible for these problems." Asked whether party leaders had met with government officials to discuss solutions he said no. While some pundits argue that the deterioration in public utilities will negatively affect the chances of the ruling party's candidates in the coming elections, the NDP official ruled out the possibility. "These crises were the result of exceptional circumstances like the heat wave. It's not a permanent state," he stressed. "The aim of the party has always been to expand public services." But political analysts blame the current crises on the absence of democracy and with it a chain of responsibility. Cairo University politics professor Hassan Nafaa told the Weekly that "there is a severe deterioration in the efficiency of Egypt's public administration and it is most apparent in the education, healthcare and public utilities sectors". Nafaa does not, however, think collapsing public services will have any impact on the election results. "Elections in Egypt are rigged by the Ministry of Interior. The deterioration in public services would only affect the outcome if they were fair," he said.
