My digital clock and everything else was off this afternoon as the recently started daily power cuts continued. The power cuts alternate between morning and afternoon: yesterday the electricity was off for 5.5 hours in the morning and today it was off for 5.5 hours in the afternoon, returning at 5:30 PM. The government knows better than to cut power at night when everyone is at home.
The power situation has been bad throughout the almost twenty years I have been in Cambodia. It improved a bit a few years ago when power transmission lines were erected to buy power from Vietnam. But now it is the worst it has ever been. The prime minister keeps blaming climate change and lack of rain, but that’s just to avoid owning responsibility for the power shortage. After all, he has been in power for 32 years. Either he didn’t see the power problems coming, or he did see them and didn’t plan for them. Either way it reflects rather badly on his leadership.