Power cuts in Sri Lanka could continue into May – minister

A woman works inside a shop attached to her house during the power cut in Colombo, Sri Lanka March 30, 2022. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

March 31, 2022

COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s power minister said on Thursday that power cuts could continue into May, as many parts of the crisis-hit country currently faced up to 13 hours without electricity due to a shortage of foreign currency to import fuel.

Pavithra Wanniarachchi said that a diesel shipment under a $500 million credit line from India is expected to arrive on Saturday.

“Once that arrives we will be able to reduce load shedding hours but until we receive rains, probably sometime in May, power cuts will have to continue. There is nothing else we can do,” Wanniarachchi said.

(Reporting Uditha Jayasinghe; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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