Power outages: 40pc factories workers lost jobs in Kabul

KABUL (Pajhwok): Prolonged power outages have forced owners of factories in Kabul to reduce their staff by 40 percent, the Kabul Chamber of Industries and Mines (CIM) says.

However, Da Afghanistan Breshna Shirkat says the problem of power blackouts is temporary and will be solved soon.

Zarif Gul Zadran, CIM deputy director, told Pajhwok Afghan News that factories owners faced many problems due to power outages.

He said electricity was provided to factories only 13 hours in 24 hours and the factories had to operate in one shift only.

According to him, previously factories were supplied electricity for 17 hours in 24 hours and the factories would operate in two shifts.

Zadran informed there were about 1,200 factories in different areas of Kabul, where more than 60,000 people worked.

He added 40 percent of these people had become jobless due to lack of electricity.

Sharifullah, a resident of 9^th police district, told Pajhwok that he used to work in a factory in Pul-i-Charkhi industrial park, but currently he was jobless.

He said: “I became jobless a week ago because our factory has no electricity at night, so they reduced the staff.”

Afridi, another worker of a factory, said he used to go to work every day, but currently electricity supply had been reduced and he went to work three days a week.

These factories workers urged the government to solve the problem of electricity in factories so they could return to their jobs.

Hekmatullah Maiwandi, a spokesman for the power utility, told Pajhwok that the problem of power outages at industrial factories was temporary and would be addressed in the next few days.

He said when there was no shortage of electricity, the industries were supplied 24 hours electricity and priority was also given to them.

He added: “We are committed to supplying electricity to industries and we always provide more power to them, but currently there is a problem for few days and people’s demand for electricity has also increased, we are also providing electricity to the people.”

According to reports of 1401 solar year, Afghanistan imports 440MW of electricity from Tajikistan, 202MW from Turkmenistan and 102MW from Iran to meet it needs.

Based on DABS information, Afghanistan is currently producing 150MW electricity with 100MW being produced by private companies.

sa/ma