The messages arrived by the dozens. Some announced a shutdown of the air conditioning, and therefore the authorization to wear shorts, a reduction in opening hours, or even a total closure until further notice. Others, too, indicated the hours of operation of the generators accompanied by an invitation to anyone who would be at the end of his or her batteries, to come and recharge a telephone or computer for free.

Banks, shops, restaurants, shopping centers, bakeries, educational centers, bars, etc. Already in very bad shape for months, in the context of an acute crisis, traders and entrepreneurs have been out of breath since, last Wednesday, the governor of the Banque du Liban (BDL), Riad Salamé, decreed the immediate lifting of fuel subsidies. A decision since suspended by a murderous political game which precipitated the country into a new infernal spiral, the climax of which was the explosion of an oil tank which left at least 29 dead and dozens injured this weekend. at Akkar.

"Due to a lack of fuel and power cuts..." This is how, since last Thursday, the messages broadcast by a number of shops and businesses began, particularly on social networks. They usually end with the announcement of a closure which takes short students, employees or passing customers, who, for lack of power at home, have been seeking refuge, for several days already, in establishments open to the public. .

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The beginnings of this blackout had already appeared weeks ago, after the shortage of fuel oil forced many generator owners to turn off their machines, plunging the Lebanese into darkness.

Officially illegal, private generators have nevertheless become the only bulwark against a total blackout in the face of the inability of the state supplier, Electricité du Liban (EDL), to fulfill its functions. With a maximum supply of "750 megawatts (MW)", according to a recent declaration by the outgoing Minister of Energy, Raymond Ghajar, against a demand exceeding 3,000 MW in this summer season, EDL is roughly a subscriber who has been absent for several weeks. Sunday evening, the public supplier also informed of a total blackout following its loss of control of certain transfer stations (see elsewhere).

Moreover, the import of Iraqi fuel recently negotiated by the authorities is still stuck in administrative paperwork which should last "one month", according to the minister, in addition to the fact that this fuel cannot be directly exploited because of its high sulfur content.

So, in this context, the country is dying out, the streets are emptying and businesses are struggling to survive, like an entire nation that is suffocating.

The battle is on

It is by candlelight that the hotel-resto-bar Lost, located in Gemmayzé (Beirut), has chosen to remain open, serving a few daring customers. "The situation can be described as dramatic," says the owner, Michel Abchee. “We have reduced our menu, no longer offering on the menu only dishes whose food can withstand a cut of two hours maximum or require less cooling than others”, he explains. The cold chain is the obsession of Michel Abchee, whose group also owns the City Mall shopping center, closed since Saturday. “We must at all costs ensure the cold chain. We have kept enough fuel oil for the refrigerators of the restaurants in the shopping center, in addition to those of the Carrefour supermarket and the Red Cross vaccination center which are there and which are the last two still in operation”, specifies- he.

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Staying open, ensuring the cold chain at a now “exorbitant” cost, that of fuel oil which, for lack of an alternative, more and more entrepreneurs and merchants have to obtain on the black market.

“I consume 360 ​​liters of fuel per day, which I now have to look for on the black market, where a ton sells for between 20 and 25 million Lebanese pounds,” explains Aline Kamakian, the owner of the Armenian restaurant Mayrig located in the same district. . A staggering sum when, according to the latest official prices set last Wednesday by the Ministry of Energy, this same ton should cost 1.17 million pounds. The additional cost is not only financial, it is also counted in energy and time devoted to the search for fuel oil.

Strongly affected by the double explosion of August 4, 2020, the restaurant and its employees have recovered and are still working hard to face this new crisis. “We are blocked by our leaders who want to bring us to our knees so that, in the end, we say yes to everything,” she analyzes. “But that, I refuse. Together, we can create a movement,” she adds.

Faced with the crisis, faced with repeated attacks on the dignity of the Lebanese, Aline Kamakian took out, this weekend, the solidarity card by offering on Saturday the possibility to anyone to use the electricity supplied by the generator of her restaurant. , with no consumption obligation. His message, broadcast on social networks, had a snowball effect, encouraging other traders and restaurateurs to do the same. His initiative also hit home with the population. Some designers working abroad have even called to ask if they could come with their desktop computers, she says, detailing having had to “add extension cords”. At the same time, the bar attached to his restaurant decided to close for lack of oil. It was without hesitation that Aline Kamakian offered to use the Mayrig generator. "If we have to close, we'll close together," she told him, determined to make sure that didn't happen, either to them or to others.

A question of survival It is a collective struggle for their immediate survival that all companies in the country are now leading. In Saida, in southern Lebanon, the Ringlet special education center “temporarily” closed its doors on Friday. "We have been struggling for a month to find solutions to the rationing of electricity", explains the owner and director, Rawane Affara. “We share the building with medical centers, so we were kind of reassured. But the situation got worse, and the cuts became more frequent and longer, until they were no longer able to connect a fan. » At the end of July, she received an electricity bill of one million pounds « for electricity whose color we did not see! ". In such conditions, working becomes a real ordeal for the center's teachers and students. "Parents called me to cancel the sessions because their children could no longer bear the heat and, above all, some houses had no more water and families were unable to maintain the hygiene of their children", says- she.

Opened in June 2019, the center has flourished in a disadvantaged region of the country, despite the onset of crises in Lebanon. A victory for the young woman who launched an educational platform just before the first confinement decreed by the authorities in March 2020 to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. A recourse to digital technology that has become essential for providing online education but which is also endangered today due to power and internet cuts. “We recharge the mobile data quota of our teachers' phones twice a week so that they can continue to give lessons online and use the platform without electricity. But what about the students? she wonders. "Every time we find a solution, it becomes obsolete the next day, swept away by a new problem," she sighs. Despite the accumulation of increasingly violent crises, "we will not stop trying to find solutions, because everything rests on our shoulders in a country where the state is absent", she concludes.

A stone's throw from the center of town, Blend cafe has better luck. "For the moment, the owner of our generator has not yet made cuts, and I think he is the only one in Saïda in this case", announces the owner, Firas Naffaa. A chance that is not due to chance: “I made him an advance payment for the month of August of 15 million pounds for that, but what will he claim next month? While the current situation plunges all Lebanese entrepreneurs into the unknown and the differences are also widening depending on the region. In fact, Firas Naffaa also owns the three Coffee Firas Naffaa stores, all located in the south of the country. The branches of Nabatiyé and Tire operate only two to three hours a day depending on the maximum current received, while that of Saïda has its own generator for which Firas Naffaa pays, for the moment, 300,000 pounds for 20 liters of heating oil on the black market, almost five times the official price.

A morbid setting Not only are cuts made completely randomly depending on controllable or uncontrollable factors (possibility of payment, fuel oil shortage, honesty of generator owners, etc.), but prices change and are negotiated according to the same criteria , both for fuel and heating oil, whether on the black market or at service stations.

Thus, in the Bekaa, "each station does what it wants", reports our correspondent on the spot, Sarah Abdallah. While the vast majority of service stations are closed, due to depletion of stocks or fear of conflicts with customers, others are selling fuel at a higher price than the prices set by the ministry but lower than those on the black market where, on Friday, the 20 liters of gasoline were exchanged there for 340,000 pounds.

In the regional capital Zahlé, the service provider Électricité de Zahlé (EDZ) is not immune to shortages and is struggling to make up for EDL's deficits. Several restaurants have thus temporarily closed their doors before reopening them by raising all their prices, a resident of the region told Sarah Abdallah. A butcher in the city says he only opens his shop when he receives power, informing his customers of his schedules every day. Still in the Bekaa, at Hermel, a resident explains that the fridges, all stopped in the shops, no longer serve as “decor”. "People's lives have completely changed," she says.

Where the blackout is far from being a novelty is in Tripoli (North Lebanon), the poorest city in the country. "The circumstances in Tripoli are even more complicated because the city has long been neglected by investors despite its potential", explains Toufic Dabboussi, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Tripoli and North Lebanon. Before this new development in the crisis, “a large majority of businesses in the city and its surroundings had already either gone bankrupt or temporarily closed while waiting to see how the situation would evolve,” he explains. “The latest developments regarding the price and availability of fuel have forced many bakeries, snack bars and restaurants to close or limit their activity as much as possible by matching their opening hours to those of their electricity supply. Others are limited to orders from regular customers – including hospitals – that they have to serve,” he adds. In addition to commercial enterprises, state administrations are also affected by the shortage of fuel oil and the lack, or even simply the absence, of electricity, “blocking downstream all the procedures that go through them”, continues the president.

Tomorrow, the Ministry of Energy will publish new fuel prices, including fuel oil used to run generators. If the BDL and this ministry reached an agreement on Saturday according to which the importing companies must sell their stocks of fuel already imported at the subsidized rate of 3,900 pounds per dollar, which should allow the stations to resume the sale, this solution does not is only temporary. A near total lifting of fuel subsidies could send fuel prices skyrocketing by more than 300%, considering the daily rate on the official Sayrafa exchange at 17,500 pounds to the dollar on Friday. . Rate which BDL Governor Riad Salamé indicated would be used to sell dollars to fuel importers.

"In any case, given the brutal devaluation of the Lebanese pound and the drop in activity linked to the crisis, many companies prefer to close rather than open to lose money", underlines Toufic Daboussi. And if only they still have the possibility.

After a Dantesque weekend, a new week has opened up that traders and entrepreneurs have no other choice but to tackle day by day, in the desperate expectation of seeing even a glimmer of light. at the end of this tunnel to the hell that Lebanon has become.

Blackouts across Lebanon: A heavy blow to business