During holidays in Ecuador there are no electricity restrictions. However, the Ministry of Energy and Mining announced that on November 4, the day before the end of the holiday, the state of supply will be assessed, and the distribution will again announce whether there will be a reduction.

Energy purchases from Colombia and Peru, as well as austerity measures and other measures by the executive, which is in its final month due to the death-throttle effect, were portrayed as an effort to curb restrictions in the face of what they called the worst dry season in 50 years and an increase consumption of 15%. After the legitimate complaints of citizens due to the energy crisis, it is time to encourage medium- and long-term solutions so that uncertainty and lack of service are not repeated in the future.

More than 9,000 km away from Ecuador, in Africa there is experience based on clean energy that has solved serious problems in rural sectors where extreme poverty may have seemed unimaginable, but then the authorities have an obligation to find solutions.

News agency AFP broadcast a report from the town of Sabon Gida. He says he depended on diesel generators or unstable lamps and used to deliver babies in a hospital located in the north-central part of Nasarawa state while holding one of them.

A public-private initiative by the World Bank, American mini-grid manufacturer Husk Power and Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency changed everything a year ago and the health center was connected to a solar mini-grid that supplies almost constant electricity to about half the houses in this farming community.

Despite the photovoltaic potential of Ecuador, the production of electricity in this way here is very cautious. It would be worthwhile to evaluate experiences such as those in Africa and other countries and to turn to entities such as the World Bank itself, which has a program to help manage the energy sector. This and other possibilities must be explored for the good of the country. (OR)