“At six in the morning (8 a.m. in Lisbon) there is no electricity. Sometimes it only comes back at 2 p.m. Then it goes off again and may only come back at midnight. This has been happening for more than three weeks, every day,” Maria de Fátima, 65, a resident of the São Pedro neighbourhood, told Lusa.
Retired, Maria de Fátima cares for a disabled son, but the power cuts complicate her life, forcing her to throw away all the spoiled frozen food. “My son is deaf and mute. He used to spend his time watching television, but now he wanders the streets. I explain to him that there is nothing we can do,” she adds.
In addition, her refrigerator has stopped working, and she fears that the cause of the malfunction may be the constant power outages. “It’s unbearable to be at home, let alone sleep in the heat. I use candles [for lighting], but it’s dangerous, any carelessness can cause a fire,” she describes.
Maria de Fátima has not been able to do her laundry for three weeks: “I put it in the machine, but before [the wash] is finished, there is no electricity.”
Neisa Cabral, 40, from the Calabaceira area, sells soup on the streets of the capital to support her three children, but says she has lost almost 50 kilos of meat stored for her business, a loss of around ten thousand escudos (€90.69).
‘I get up at four in the morning to make soup by candlelight. I’m at a disadvantage because it’s money that I could use, for example, to buy school supplies for my children, who haven’t even been able to go to school yet. I have to double my sales to make [the same amount], but without electricity, it’s difficult,” she says.
Loriana Garcia, 27, a resident of Achadinha, also threw part of her monthly shopping (all frozen food) in the bin and, out of fear, instead of using candles, she prefers the light from her mobile phone so as not to be in the dark – but she risks running out of battery for telecommunications.
“The streets become even more dangerous, there may be more robberies,” she adds. In Várzea, Luciene Semedo, 18, divides her time between a bakery and online sales. The food has gone bad, her mother, a seamstress, has been unable to deliver orders, and even her mobile phone is no longer a work tool.
“The soap operas in the evening were my distraction. Now, there’s no power, not even for that,” she says, laughing resignedly. José Afonso, 56, an emigrant in Portugal but on holiday in Palmarejo, Praia, says he has never seen anything like it.
“The power goes out during the day and only comes back at night,” he laments, considering that there shouldn’t even be an electricity bill this month.
José Brito, 46, manager of a mini-market in Fazenda for ten years, lists the frozen products that end up in the trash every day: “Chickens, sausages, shrimp, beans, among others. No one buys them when they see they’re thawed out,” he says, adding that “in this hot season, everyone wants cool water, for example, but there isn’t any.”
“We’re selling less, and the generator we have can only power the cash register, not the refrigerators. What sells best now are candles,” he says.
The minister of Industry, Trade and Energy, Alexandre Monteiro, explained on Sunday in an interview with Televisão de Cabo Verde (TCV) that half of the six generator sets on the island of Santiago are out of service due to breakdowns, awaiting parts from abroad.
The manager of the electricity production company had already promised an end to the cuts almost two weeks ago, but another breakdown on Friday exacerbated the problem.
The President, José Maria Neves, said in a Facebook post on Monday that he was “very concerned” about the deterioration of public services, from electricity to health, transport and education, warning of the risks of erosion of trust between ministers and the governed.
“We must be attentive to the questions that citizens and civil society ask the President and ministers at all levels about public services and make corrections where necessary,” he said.
Platform with Lusa
