Energy Minister Miriam Dalli and the government should shoulder ‘political responsibility’ over this week's power cuts, Bernard Grech said on Sunday.
The PN leader was speaking at the end of a week characterised by a series of power cuts across Malta. In most cases, the power cuts lasted a few hours, but on Saturday, Gzira and some localities in Gozo had no power for almost 24 hours.
Speaking on the Nationalist Party’s radio and television stations, Grech laid the blame squarely on Prime Minister Robert Abela and Dalli.
“This was a crisis we forecasted because the government could not keep up with the population’s influx. Just a few weeks ago Dalli told us not to worry about power cuts this summer,” Grech said.
The government was not investing enough in the energy grid, Grech said, quoting a Sunday Times of Malta story.
As the cuts spread across Malta, Abela and Dalli were nowhere to be seen, with the Energy Minister’s only comment being that she worries whenever there was a power cut, Grech said.
The country needed ministers who planned and invested in infrastructure in a bid to prevent crises and not only worry when disaster strikes, he said.
“Dalli and the government must assume political responsibility for the people’s suffering. People deserve better,” he said, adding that the administration had spent millions on a temporary power station to prepare for the summer.
“The plant will begin operating two months into summer,” Grech said.
Grech said that businesses were suffering because of the cuts, adding that Malta’s reputation as a tourist destination is also taking a hit.
But for some, a power cut was also a matter of life and death, he said.
“Someone with sleep apnoea can die: if their machine stops working, they will get less oxygen in their blood, which can kill them,” Grech said.
Besides energy, Grech said that Malta’s sewage system was also not keeping up with demand.
“Several bays were forced to close because of drainage leaks, and the government has been throwing untreated sewage into the sea for months,” Grech claimed.