Lebanon has been hit by two catastrophes in recent days.
Over the weekend, the country’s two largest power stations were closed due to fuel shortages, leading to a mass blackout. On top of that, there was a terrible fire at the Zahrani power plant.
Here is a video:
Lebanon just cannot catch a break. Iranian fuel has continued to trickle across the border, but it apparently has not been enough to effectively solve the fuel crisis, for which I have now heard four different explanations.
The first explanation is quite literally that there is not enough fuel in the country to provide for the population.
The second explanation is that the government’s corruption and inefficiencies have become so extreme that it is not capable of effectively distributing fuel.
The third explanation is that Syria sanctions have had an extreme downstream effect on Lebanon, first destroying the economy, and now crippling fuel distribution.
And the fourth explanation is that hoarding by certain parts of the population has compounded usual government mismanagement.
Overall, I think the answer involves all of these explanations to some degree, but the driving factors are likely literal fuel deficits and government mismanagement. I have an earlier post where I link this article. I think it overall spells out the on-the-ground issues pertaining to the shortage. I posted about it in mid-August.
Sanctions on Syria likely have a negative effect on Lebanon, but it is unclear to me how this necessarily effects fuel distribution. Perhaps the added burden on public infrastructure inhibits the state from providing services that it already had trouble maintaining. Hoarding could also be a contributing issue, but likely not serious enough to create a crisis this extreme.
Large blackouts are expected to continue.