- author, George Wright
- role, BBC News
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Ecuador suffered a nationwide power outage on Wednesday, leaving around 18 million people without power for several hours, a government official said.
Around mid-afternoon local time on Wednesday, the capital Quito’s subway came to a halt and traffic lights stopped working.
Shortly after power was restored, Public Works Minister Roberto Luque blamed the outage on a lack of investment in the electrical system.
Writing in X, he said this was “just further evidence of the energy crisis we face.”
“We’ve been disinvesting in these systems for years and we’re seeing the consequences today,” he added.
Quito Mayor Pavel Muñoz described Wednesday’s incident as “serious” and explained that “the electricity supply to the subway, which has its own system, was also cut off.”
Quito metro said services were suspended “due to a general failure of the national power grid.”
The power outages have left residents frustrated, with Diana Rosales, a hairdresser in Guayaquil who was cutting someone’s hair when the outage occurred, telling newspaper Espresso: “It’s not fair that we pay so much and continue to receive such poor service.”
Local media reported that drinking water supplies had been cut off in some areas, with some residents expressing frustration that they had received no warning of the outage.
“Now I have to work miracles with the bottles I have at home,” Guayas resident Andrew Medina told Espresso.
Evening classes have also been canceled at educational institutions across the country and are now being held online, according to the Ministry of Education.
Hours after the blackout began, Prime Minister Luque announced that 95% of the country’s power had been restored.
He had previously blamed faulty power lines for the outage.
Most of the country’s energy comes from neighboring Colombia.
