Rajapaksa starts three-hour rolling power cuts

| AFP

( July 24, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka announced on Tuesday that electricity would be cut to many homes, shops, offices and government buildings for three hours every day due to shortages from hydro-power stations.

The outages will be rotated across different parts of the island and begin at various times throughout the day, the energy ministry said, blaming a drought that has affected reservoirs in the central region.

'We are facing difficulties in balancing the supply and demand,' the ministry said in a statement. 'The only alternative is to carry out power cuts across the country until further notice.'

It said two poor monsoon seasons had caused hydro-electricity generation to drop by 75 per cent in the past year and added that shortages had been compounded by a new Chinese-built coal power generator breaking down.