Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — The people of Harazat district in southeast Jeddah have threatened to sue the Saudi Electricity Company over recurrent power outage in their area.

Ali Al-Asmary, a resident of the district, said the Electricity Company was quick to disconnect the power supply if a consumer failed to pay his bills, but there was on one to penalize the company when it failed to fulfill its obligations to the consumers.

“The past three days have been terrible for many residents of Harazat and the people are extremely angry. The power outage would last for up to five hours. Then the supply would be restored for a few hours and it would be cut off again. When we would report the outage to the company, they would reply to us saying there was a problem in the electric feed,” said Al-Asmary.

He added than when the supply finally came back it was weak.

“We were only able to turn on the lights. The air conditioners would no work. We pay exuberant amounts of money to the company and it doesn’t provide us with an efficient service. I will sue them if they don’t solve this problem permanently,” said Al-Asmary.

Aboud Al-Zubaidi said the frequent power outage in Harazat was not a recent phenomenon.

“We’ve had this problem for years and we complained to the company numerous times to no avail. My children didn’t go to school on Thursday because the power was out all night and they couldn’t sleep,” said Al-Zubaidi.

Sultan Al-Qarni said he had to take his family to the car so they could sit in an air-conditioned area.

“My neighbor rented out an apartment because there was no power in his house in the past few days. Moreover, all the foodstuffs in the fridges have gone bad now,” said Al-Qarni.