Kabul residents decry severe outages, urge Afghanistan's power utility to act

Kabul [Afghanistan], September 25 (ANI): Residents of Kabul's District 6 have complained of prolonged power outages, saying they receive electricity for only six hours a day, Tolo News reported.
Latifi, a resident of the area, said: "Sometimes at night, the electricity comes at 9 PM until midnight, then it cuts off; it returns in the morning and then goes again."
Another resident, Mohammad Saleh Sharifi, raised concerns over the rising cost of power. "When electricity is billed monthly, it becomes very expensive. Previously, we used to pay 1,000 Afghanis for two months, but now it's 1,200 Afghanis for just one month," he said.
Other residents stressed that their daily activities are heavily dependent on electricity and warned that the outages were worsening both their economic and household challenges. They urged the Breshna company to take immediate steps to address the situation, according to Tolo News.
Asadullah, another Kabul resident, explained: "It usually creates a lot of challenges; because most people's work, especially in apartment blocks, like water supply and other matters, is 50 to 80 percent dependent on electricity."
Noorullah, a pharmacy student, added: "The weather is hot, and there's no electricity. I study in pharmacy school, and when it's time for my lessons, there's no power. We ask Breshna to increase the electricity supply time."
Responding to the complaints, Mohammad Sadiq Haqparast, spokesperson for the Breshna company, said: "Currently, we have between 350 to 400 megawatts of electricity in Kabul, while the actual need of the city is 650 to 700 megawatts."
According to Tolo News, investments in power projects have increased in recent months, but it remains uncertain how much these efforts will ease the electricity shortage in Kabul. (ANI)