Kabul: Electricity supply to several Afghan provinces and capital city Kabul has been stopped due to technical problems, Afghanistan's state power company, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), said on Wednesday. The supply to these areas was coming from from Uzbekistan.
This comes a few days after reports said that Afghanistan's electricity body said it is set to sell the estates of its debtors in a bid to pay nearly USD 62 million worth of power bills to the central Asian countries.
The technical issues emerged in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan, Sputnik reported citing DABS. "The technical staff is working to resolve this issue as soon as possible," the statement read.
This development comes as news reports say that Afghanistan's capital city Kabul could dive into darkness due to non-payment of dues of Central Asian electricity suppliers by new Taliban rulers. Electricity imports from neighbouring countries like Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan account for 80 per cent of the country's power consumption.
After the Taliban took over Kabul in August and the Afghan government fell. The outfit took power over the state energy utility, inheriting its debts, but have so far failed to pay off the creditors.
Electricity imports from neighbouring countries like Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan account for 80 per cent of the country's power consumption
Earlier this month, the former head of DABS, Daud Noorzai, said that the supplies of electricity to the Afghan capital province of Kabul could be cut off by winter as the Taliban did not pay the bills to the Central Asian energy suppliers.
Meanwhile, Safiullah Ahamdzai, the acting head of DABAS, said that they will implement the plan and will pay off all the debts to prevent cutting electricity by exporting countries, The Khaama Press News Agency reported.
Several UN agencies and other world bodies have raised grave concern about the dire economic situation in the country, which risks worsening the unfolding humanitarian crisis. The United Nations on Thursday said that it has not received any requests from any entity in Afghanistan to pay bills to electricity suppliers before Kabul faces a mass blackout.
Daud Noorzai, who resigned as chief executive of the country's state power authority, DABS, had warned that the situation could cause a humanitarian disaster, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) had reported.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday said Afghanistan is facing a "serious humanitarian crisis and a socio-economic collapse is looming" that will prove to be dangerous for the region and international security.
