Kabul Residents ‘Frustrated’ with Continued Power Cuts

A number of Kabul residents said they feel frustrated with power outages in the city that have continued for the past few weeks, leaving people with many challenges amidst the freezing winter.

The residents asked the government to address the matter. According to the residents, electricity is supplied four to five hours a day, which is not enough for them.

"The issue of electricity has reached its peak, especially in the Makrorayan area because we cannot use gas and the heating system is not activated yet," said Shabana, a Kabul resident.

"There is water shortage. If we don't have electricity, we don't have water too," said Sherzai, a Kabul resident.

The business community said that the power shortage has also affected factories in Kabul's industrial park.

"We don't have electricity even for one hour. We should use thermal power resources until the transmission lines for power supply from Uzbekistan are reconnected," said Sakhi Ahmad Payman, first deputy of the Chamber of the Industry and Mine.

The country's power distributor, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), said at least 30 percent of the electricity for Kabul is supplied through internal sources.

"Efforts are underway to provide electricity for people for two hours," said Hekmatullah Maiwandi, DABS spokesman.

A former DABS chairman, Amanullah Ghalib, meanwhile, suggested that there is a need to invest in producing electricity from coal.

"We have to invest in the country's resources such as coal because Afghanistan has a lot of coal sources," Ghalib said.

Afghanistan imports most of its needed power from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Iran.