Minister of Electricity and Energy Hassan Younis has called on Egyptians to take steps to rein in their electricity consumption. “The government took the initiative and cut its electricity consumption by 50 percent," he said. "And citizens should also seek ways of achieving this goal.” Younis made the statements at a meeting on Wednesday with Minister of Local Development Abdel Salam Mahgoub, Cairo Governor Abdel Azim Wazir and Giza Governor Sayyid Abdel Aziz. Younis went on to reveal that the cabinet was currently considering new measures for power rationing, which include closing retail stores at night. “This system has been adopted in most of the world," he noted. Household electricity consumption has recently doubled, according to Younis, who cited an increase in the number of air-conditioning units to three million countrywide in 2009, compared with only 700,000 units in 2006. “We are not asking people to keep the lights off or to refrain from buying AC units, but we're calling on them to switch them off after leaving the room,” Younis said. “In order to prevent electricity cuts during hot weather, we need investments worth more than LE16 billion." For his part, el-Mahgoub said that the province of Ismailia had begun implementing a plan to decrease the number of street lights nine months ago. He added that the province had not received any complaints by residents thus far. According to Younis, the scheme has so far saved Ismailia some LE32 million, which will be reallocated towards local development. The minister went on to explain that street lights would not be turned off completely and that tunnels would be excluded from the scheme. He pointed out that lights would also be switched off in government buildings at night, vowing that the measures would be strictly enforced. "Society must be convinced with the viability of an idea before accepting it," said Younis. "The government cannot impose it on citizens.” Translated from the Arabic Edition.
