News Desk
Ecuador was hit with an hours-long nationwide blackout on Wednesday that left the South American nation’s 17 million people without power.
Hospitals, residences, and a significant subway system were impacted by the blackout, which authorities attributed to transmission and maintenance problems with the nation’s electrical grid.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Public system Minister Roberto Luque stated, “The outages we had today were due to a lack of investment in maintenance, new electrical transmission, and the protection of the electrical transmission infrastructure.”
in April a drought that impacted electricity generation, President Daniel Noboa of Ecuador issued an order for eight-hour national power cuts and declared an energy emergency.
A CNN crew witnessed two hospitals in Quito, the country’s capital, including a children’s medical center, lose power during the blackout. Shortly after the power outage started, both hospitals could depend on the electricity generated by their generators.
The blackout also momentarily impacted two additional hospitals in Guayaquil, the largest city in the country. A physician from the Luis Vernaza hospital in Guayaquil remarked, “The power was cut but we have our own (generators).” The Health Ministry of the nation was contacted by CNN to inquire about any impacted hospitals.
The resident continued, “On top of this, the water is not running.”
The blackout caused the subway system in Quito to go out of service. The mayor of the capital, Pabel Muñoz, stated that the outage was so “significant” that it had an impact on the subway even though it was run by “an isolated (electrical) system.”
After a similar power loss in 2004, Infrastructure Minister Luque claimed that the blackout might have been prevented if Ecuador had implemented an investment plan to
“safeguard the infrastructure in both generating (power) and the transmission.”
According to Luque,
“the April outages were caused by a lack of investment in new (power) generation and in maintenance of the (power) we have.”
