Residents from the towns of Muhammarah, Benin, and Jdeidet Al-Qayta’ asked in a statement the Caretaker Minister of Energy and Water Raymond Ghajar and the Electricité du Liban about “the reason for not fully activating Nahr al-Bared power plant.”

The statement said: “In light of the fuel shortages and outages and the high power bills, why don’t you benefit from the hydropower plant in the region?”

The residents hold the company’s management responsible for this negligence, stressing that “this is unacceptable, and that part of this electric current must be given to these areas.

The residents added in their statement: “If all the turbines were running, the electricity would have served all of Akkar, but unfortunately there is an intolerable neglect.”

They said: “We will take escalating steps in the coming weeks, and our target is to give residents the most basic rights, as people do not have the ability to pay subscription bills for private power generators.”