When The Lights Go Out In Syria

It is dark in the streets of Latakia, a big city on the Mediterranean coast in Syria. Streetlights are not functioning; only a few sporadic lights are seen in the many apartment buildings. Syria 2022 is a place where people lack one of the 21st century's basic needs: electricity.

Electricity is available in Latakia only three times a day, for half an hour each time. It differs from city to city, but for most hours of each day, there is no electricity. What does this mean for the people?

Darkness is the one thing that is most apparent when travelling in Syria at night, perhaps it is the only thing. The streets are covered in darkness and the windows are but black squares on the walls of buildings. The few lights that can be seen are LED lamps that run on batteries. Most shops have a battery, often a car battery, that takes over when the electricity cuts.

“We don’t have the generators that Aleppo has,” says Father Fadi, priest of the Catholic Church in Latakia.

In Aleppo, one can pay for the use of the big noisy generators in the streets. However, it is a luxury that only some can afford, and there is only sufficient power to have some light at home but not enough to run a washing machine, a refrigerator, or air-conditioning. The people in Aleppo have lived with a lack of electricity since the early days of the Syrian war when the city was often completely cut off from electricity for long periods. That was when generators were brought to the city.

  When visiting people all over Syria, this is what happens time after time: during a conversation, the electricity would stop all of a sudden, and darkness will take over. Just as quickly, the locals would turn on the flashlights on their mobile phones to light up the room again and continue the conversation.

“There are rumours that soon there will be no power at all,” one Syrian church leader says. “That would mean we will be in full darkness.” The reason for the lack of energy isn’t fully clear. Of course, the infrastructure was damaged in the war and it has not been repaired or maintained. But even before the war started in 2011, Syrian cities often had power cuts as the power plants in the country could not keep up with demand.
 
In many households the washing machine has not been used in years. For George Tarrab, who has a workshop in Aleppo where he performs maintenance on washing machines, this means less work. “People don’t bring their washing machine for repairs as they can’t use their machine.”

The lack of electricity also affects the students in Syria. They neither have light nor energy to keep their laptops running at home. Thankfully, churches have begun offering study rooms on their premises to the students, some with our support. There, they have guaranteed electricity (via a generator), stable internet connection, and light.

For the elderly people living in apartments the electricity cuts are having a big impact on their lives. “I have a man in my parish who cannot walk up and down the stairs. As the elevators have stopped working because of the electricity, he cannot leave his house. The elderly often can’t leave their houses; that also goes for pregnant women,” says Father Fadi. “As these people cannot come to church, I visit them at home to have communion with them.”