A power outage was announced, leaving the whole of Lebanon without power this Saturday. Until now, “utilities have still supplied electricity for two to four hours a day.depending on the zone, “Portuguese photojournalist João Sousa, who lives in Beirut after marrying a Lebanese citizen, told Expresso this Sunday.

“Now we are awaiting a second delivery of automotive fuel from Iran via Syria. This transport is provided by Hezbollah. which creates a lot of internal political tension: there are many people here who do not like Hezbollah or this intervention, who are considered the second state within the state, thinking that Iran has excessive influence in Lebanon, but there are also many people who like it. ” explains Juan Portuguese currently works in the newspaper. “L’Oriente-Le Jour”, the only independent media that publishes material in French and posts photos to your Instagram account, which can look here…

No one knows when this second stock will arrive, which “does not solve the problems of the generators, because this is the fuel for the cars. The fuel we use in our generators is different. They have different names: we call diesel fuel, which we use in generators, and gasoline, which is used in vehicles.“, says Joao.

It is difficult to live in a country where the summers are very hot and there is practically no electricity. Life wasn’t like this a while ago. Almost no one remembers how long ago. Everything changed with political instability, corruption, and then the war broke out in Syria – a country with which Lebanon has a vast border – and then a violent explosion that destroyed the port and part of the city of Beirut on August 4, 2020, jeopardizing supplies. by the sea.

“Fuel prices have been rising every month, ”says João Sousa. Each district has generators, there are buildings that have their own generators, and there are also houses that have generators to prevent shortages. There are generators in the clinics, it’s crazy how much they spend, every month we pay more for fuel. “

Power outages were expected from at least the end of September. For October, it is scheduled to disrupt the supply of fuel to two power plants in the public network.

Two weeks ago, João Souza and his wife, a Lebanese citizen (born and raised in Lebanon), lived “on electricity supplied from the public grid for two hours a day.” They and all the inhabitants of Greater Beirut, about two million people: “Refrigerators only work if people have a generator, public transport lines are huge because buses are rare., no one can drive a car because there is no fuel. “Lifestyles have turned upside down with obvious negative consequences for large companies, small businesses and hospitals”:Even charging a mobile phone or using a computer is difficult.“, – he told us in the last days of September.

Eighty Portuguese in Lebanon

“Currently, according to the IRN (Institute of Registers and Notaries), in Lebanon there are 80 citizens of the country with a citizen card with a registered address. A spokesman for the State Secretariat of the Portuguese Communities told Expresso.

It is known that “in connection with the explosions in the port of Beirut in 2020, the embassy tried to update the assessment of Portuguese citizens in Lebanon, whose number then approached a hundred,” adds the SECP.

Portugal does not have an embassy in Lebanon, issues are resolved at our embassy in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus. “The Honorary Consul in Beirut for legal reasons does not have full competence to carry out all consular actions,” the SECP reports, adding that “with regard to the implementation of a consular presence in Beirut, similar to that which took place after the bombings. at the port of Beirut in August 2020, the response has been adapted to real needs. “