Lebanon is teetering on the edge of collapse and hospitals are so short of electricity that dozens of patients who are receiving care in Beirut’s intensive-care wards could soon be dead, according to an article in Forbes.
On Saturday, the American University of Beirut Medical Center warned that if it did not receive a shipment of diesel fuel by Monday to keep its generators running, 40 adult patients and 15 children living on respirators would die immediately and another 180 patients receiving dialysis treatment would die within days.
In addition, a nearby medical centre said hundreds of cancer patients were also in danger of dying due to the lack of electricity.
“The looming humanitarian crisis demonstrates the essentiality of electricity to modern society. Countries with robust electric grids usually have strong civil institutions and robust economies. But as can be seen in Lebanon, Iraq, Nigeria, and other places where corruption runs unchecked, electric grids simply don’t work,” the report stated.
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“For decades, Lebanon’s tattered electric grid—which is actually a patchwork of generators and wires that includes the corrupt and inept state-owned utility, Electricité du Liban, and independent power producers known as the ‘generator mafia’—has struggled to provide reliable power to the country’s residents. But over the past two years, and in particular, since the deadly explosion at a port building leveled much of central Beirut a year ago, the Lebanese economy has descended into chaos, and as the economic slide has accelerated, electricity has become ever scarcer. According to Associated Press, Lebanese residents “currently get an average of two hours of electricity per day from the notoriously corrupt state company that has cost state coffers more than $40 billion over the past three decades.
“But due to shortages of fuel, the generator mafia has not been able to meet demand. According to one report, the private generator owners turn off their generators for over 12 hours per day.
“The Lebanese economy has long been on the brink of disaster. As the country’s crisis worsens, it appears the human suffering and dying—much of it due to electricity shortages—may be just beginning.”
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