“Summer has arrived, the heat has set in, and the Maltese people are once again having to resort to reading by candlelight,” stated the Nationalist Party.

Ryan Callus, Shadow Minister for Energy, Research and Innovation, highlighted that in recent weeks and days, several localities have reported power outages, with many residents left without electricity for long hours – including during the night.

Areas affected in recent hours in Malta include Tarxien, Paola, Zabbar, Fgura, Marsaskala, Zejtun, Qormi, Birkirkara, Balzan, Naxxar, and Gharghur.

The Shadow Minister pointed out that some of these localities have experienced hours-long outages for the second consecutive week, following similar disruptions last week in Naxxar, St Paul’s Bay, St Julian’s, San Gwann, Sannat and other localities in Gozo.

“We have now spent two years being promised a stable electricity service during the summer months, but it seems this summer will bring more of the same,” stated Callus. “This, despite the fact that the Government and Minister Miriam Dalli assured us a solution had been found.”

He argued that “after the so-called solution involving a temporary power station running on diesel-powered generators and rented generators placed outside people’s doors and beneath their bedroom windows, we were told that this summer would not see further electricity cuts.”

Yet these outages – particularly now as the heat intensifies – are taking a heavy toll on everyone, especially the elderly and vulnerable, as well as those who rely on electricity for medical purposes. Shop owners, especially those whose businesses also depend on power, are also suffering, he stated.

Callus insisted that “all this is the result of a government that does not plan ahead – a government that fails to take seriously the urgent need to invest in infrastructure that meets the demands of an ever-growing population, a population growing without proper control, and whose strain is now collapsing our energy systems, just as summer begins.”

The Shadow Minister concluded by saying that “it is Maltese and Gozitan families who are paying the price, in the quality of their daily lives.”

File photo: Enemalta

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