Libyans endure sweltering summer as power cuts persist

TRIPOLI: On a sweltering night in Libya’s capital, Ahlam Fathi watches her son study by candlelight as yet another power cut has plunged the family home into darkness.

Despite the large windows being swung open, the air hangs heavily in the small central Tripoli apartment.

“I can’t even be mad at him for failing one or two subjects,” said Fathi of her son, who is revising for his high school exit exams. The 41-year-old mother of two teenagers is one of millions of Libyans enduring prolonged power cuts amid high summer humidity and temperatures which sometimes reach 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). “The summer is difficult in Libya, as always, but you feel the heat even more in small apartments because of the electricity cuts, which often last more than 10 hours,” she said.

Tripoli residents flock to beaches and other public spaces during power outages, escaping the heat of their homes as air conditioning and fans remain switched off. Residents have also been hit by sharp price rises, including a fourfold jump in the cost of bread in less than a month. Cross-border smuggling of subsidised goods has created shortages which have left families struggling to get by. While these are nationwide problems, they are exacerbated in the crowded capital, which is home to 2.5 million residents and others displaced from fighting elsewhere in the country.

Cities in western Libya refuse to share the burden of power shortages, and militias often forcefully prevent national electricity firm Gecol from imposing rationing. In Tripoli, fighting erupted this week between rival militias in the southern suburbs, with Gecol warning of a total blackout after the clashes damaged the electricity network.

University professor Amal Khayri, 40, said the situation has forced Libyans to install generators, but they are “often very expensive, not very powerful and of poor quality”.