The Emir of Qatar has pledged up to $12 million to help ease the power crisis in the Gaza strip, Palestine.
After weeks of power cuts and protests, things might get slightly easier for the people of the Gaza strip after Qatar pledged $12 million to bring back electricity to the enclave.
For several weeks, Gaza’s population of 2 million have been without electricity, with the power reaching their homes for a couple of hours a day. The people in Gaza have probably never seen a full day of electricity in their lives, but before the crisis they had between 6 to 8 hours at its best. But now, they are lucky to have electricity for an hour or two.
The Palestinian Energy Authority in the strip said that the money provided by Qatar will help them buy enough fuel to power a third generator, providing the city with 8 hours of daily electricity for 3 months.
Gaza has a demand of between 450 to 500 MegaWatts of power a day, but hasn’t been able to provide even a third of that. The power plant currently produces about 30 MW a day, with another 30 MW being imported from Egypt.
There are various private parties that have commercialized private generators around the city, but only for those who can afford it. But with fuel running short, the price to operate them has gone up, and several factories, bakeries and other businesses have had to lay off employees or cut production in order to keep up.
The Qatari Emir, H.H. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani pledged 4 million USD over the course of three months to help ease the suffering of the people of Gaza after a meeting with a senior Palestinian official earlier this week.
