Since the collapse of Lebanon’s state power grid, many middle and working class families have been forced to spend most of their monthly income to pay shady neighborhood businessmen running private generators.
Still, they go without electricity for nearly half the day, according to a report by Human Rights Watch released Thursday. The situation threatens to deepen the poverty of this tiny Mediterranean country embroiled in a devastating economic meltdown.
According to the report, generator bills take up about 44% of the average family’s monthly income, and twice that for the country’s poorer families. HRW cited as median monthly income in Lebanon $122, with 40% of the households earning approximately $100 or less a month and 90% earning less than $377 per month.
The burden of Lebanon's power shortages is “disproportionately borne by the poor,” said Lama Fakih, HRW's director for Mideast and North Africa, said at a news conference presenting the report. Lebanon's blackouts increased substantially two years ago, when the cash-strapped government could no longer afford importing fuel for its power plants. And while much of the world has looked to renewable sources of energy to tackle climate change, Lebanon relies on noisy, polluting, and expensive private diesel generators to keep the lights on.
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