The Lebanese government's continued mismanagement of the electricity sector and its failure to carry out key reforms is diminishing the public's already-limited access to electricity, Human Rights Watch said today.
On August 17, 2024, Lebanon's only operational power plant shut down after the state-run electricity company, Electricité du Liban (EDL) ran out of fuel, resulting in a complete nationwide power outage. The outage left residents and key state institutions, such as the airport, water pump stations, sewage systems, and prisons, without state-provided electricity for more than 24 hours, and reliant on costly and highly polluting private diesel generators.
"The government's continued willful mismanagement has plunged the country into complete darkness as residents are left to pay the price," said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Failing to implement key reforms that would enable access to continuous, accessible, and clean electricity means that Lebanon will lurch from one acute power outage to the next with no end in sight."
Lebanon: Electricity Crisis Exacerbates Poverty, Inequality
Access to Reliable, Affordable Electricity Is a Human Right
A 2023 Human Rights Watch report documented that Lebanon's electricity crisis is preventing people in Lebanon from realizing their right to electricity, as well as other rights, including to education, health, water, sanitation, and a healthy environment.
The South Lebanon Water Establishment, the public utility responsible for supplying water and treating wastewater across southern Lebanon, published a statement on August 18 calling on people to ration water use "to the maximum extent possible" in light of the current power outage. It said that the utility's reliance on private diesel generators will "not be enough to provide the sufficient quantities of water to supply all the cities and towns within the jurisdiction of the establishment."
The August 17 power outage resulted from the government's failure to make overdue payments to the Iraqi government for supplying Lebanon with heavy fuel oil that the Lebanese government can then swap for fossil fuels compatible with Lebanon's power plants. The last operational plant shut down after the plant's fossil fuel reserves were depleted, EDL said, leading "to a total blackout across all Lebanese territories."
Media reported that the Lebanese government had asked Iraq to forgive part of Lebanon's unpaid debt for previous fuel shipments, which caused Iraq to delay further shipments. On August 18, Algerian authorities stated that they will supply Lebanon with fuel to operate its electricity power plants in wake of the power outage, and sent
