The Tunisian Electricity and Gas Company announced that it will resort to periodic power cuts in several regions of the country to control record consumption rates in light of the severe heat wave.
The company notified citizens via an official statement about the outages between 5 pm and 9 pm, which is the same procedure it has adopted in recent years.
The company's director, Faisal Tarifa, said that the company was forced to activate "periodic power cuts" on a temporary basis and on a rotational basis between different regions, in order to maintain the stability of the national electricity grid and avoid its collapse.
Since the beginning of this week, Tunisia has been experiencing unusually high temperatures, mostly ranging between 42 and 45 degrees Celsius in most western regions far from the coasts.
The temperature in the state of Jendouba exceeded 48 degrees yesterday, Thursday, at 1:32 pm, a record high that the state had never known before, according to the National Institute of Meteorology.
These figures are between eight and 13 degrees higher than normal rates for this time of year.
The institute said the heat wave will be at its highest levels on Friday, particularly in the west of the country, and is expected to continue into next week, before experiencing a relative decrease starting on July 22.
The heat wave has led to disruptions in water supplies in a number of villages and towns, causing anger, protests and road blockages, particularly in western regions.
Tunisia is classified among the countries most affected by the repercussions of climate change in the Mediterranean region, due to water stress and the frequency of drought seasons.
