(17 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Quito, Ecuador – 16 April 2024
1. Various of empty restaurants due to lack of electricity
2. Various restaurant workers smashing and blending food by hand
3. Karen Verduga, owner of the restaurant with her workers
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Karen Verduga, Restaurant Owner:
"It affects quite a lot because you know that in restaurants we have products that can spoil. If electricity shuts down all the time, it affects us. Besides the restaurant requires the electricity because we need to blend (fruits) for juices. If affects us quite a lot."
5. Various restaurant workers cooking
6. Close of lit candle
7. Oriannis Arcano working and lighting himself with a candle
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Oriannis Arcano, Candle Seller:
"Regarding decorations, they haven’t changed much. People are not going to light up their houses with decorative candles. What we have sold is the common white candle, not that much but somehow it has been sold. Cuts have just started yesterday so let’s see how this week fares."
9. Arcano arranging wares
10. Wide candle store
11. Various from store selling clothes and shoes in the dark
12. Betty Morales attending to a customer
13. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Betty Morales, Store Manager:
"I can’t serve people because it is dark, you can’t make the payment work. It affects me a lot because I need to keep the store closed. Two days in and I’ve seen fewer clients. People come in but leave if they see it’s dark."
14. Various of clothing
15. Shut down traffic lights
15. Various of police officer directing traffic
STORYLINE:
Ecuador on Tuesday began rationing electricity in its main cities, as a drought linked to the El Niño weather pattern depleted reservoirs, limiting the output at hydroelectric plants that produce most of the country’s electricity.
The power cuts were announced on Monday night by the Ministry of Energy, which said in a statement that it would review its decision on Wednesday night.
Quito, Cuenca, Guayaquil, and Manta are among the main cities affected along the 10 regions where brownouts are scheduled for three hours per day.
Authorities have urged people to consider each "kilowatt and drop of water" consumed.
The electricity rationing in Ecuador comes days after dry weather forced neighboring Colombia to ration water in its capital as reservoirs reached record lows.
Precipitation has diminished in the region due to warming temperatures in the south Pacific Ocean, which can cause floods along South America’s west coast but can also generate intense droughts in the Andean valleys, where many of Ecuador’s and Colombia’s main cities are located.
During the first week of April, Colombia suspended electricity exports to Ecuador in an attempt to save energy for domestic needs.
AP Video by Cesar Olmos
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