“The bowl is lost” in Sidon

Despite some popular protests and the intervention of the Sidon municipality and representatives Abd al-Rahman al-Bizri and Osama Saad, the owners of private generators in Sidon refused to reduce the pricing they imposed for the month of May and to abide by the official pricing issued by the Ministry of Energy and Water.

The refusal came in the form of an incapacitating proposal, as the generator owners demanded the actors to provide the quantities of diesel required to operate their generators at the subsidized price, and to implement severe rationing (8 hours per day).

For its part, the committee, which was entrusted with the city’s activities, refused to follow up on the generator owners’ offer and called on the affected citizens to go to the judiciary and file lawsuits once morest them on charges of violating the official pricing.

The Appeal Public Prosecutor in the South, Judge Raheef Ramadan, had summoned most of the generator owners to interrogate them on charges of exceeding the official price, and arrested three of them for some time. As a result, contacts took place that led to the resumption of dialogue between generator owners and actors represented by Mayor Muhammad Al-Saudi to reach a solution, with the first meeting to be held today.

Photo by Ali Hashisho ()

Sources of generator owners told Al-Akhbar that their payments have resumed the collection of subscriptions from homes and institutions, “because we need liquidity to purchase diesel to ensure continuity of supplying the current to subscribers.” They retracted the legalization decision they had threatened with, but they set deadlines that would expire following days of “either to pay or cut.”

This led to confusion among the participants, who were “lost” between continuing to refuse to pay or that this would expose them to the punishment of cutting the subscription from their homes.

It is certain that the round was won by the generator owners, as all attempts to pressure them went unheeded, and the participants lost their dream of a reduced bill in light of the intensification of the economic crisis, following they provided themselves with a special price for those whose monthly consumption does not exceed 100 kilowatts.

In the last sit-in in the municipality square, many mourners demanded the confiscation of the violating generators and their operation by the municipality, but other voices rose calling for the use of violence, “If they want to have mercy on the world, let us burn our motors as they are burning our Egyptians.”

Photo by Ali Hashisho ()