Ecuador celebrates Christmas in the midst of an energy crisis, which forced electricity rationing, despite which shopping centers, homes and private buildings did not skimp on using decorative lights and, even, the Municipality lit the gigantic and traditional manger at the top from a hill in Quito.
Electrical rationing began last October with sectoral cuts of up to four hours a day, which fluctuated for days, a measure that then-president Guillermo Lasso justified because the country was experiencing “the worst dry spell not seen in the last 50 years.”
Although last week the Government of the current president, Daniel Noboa, announced the increase in electricity cuts by one hour, at the beginning of this week its Minister of Energy, Andrea Arrobo, said that they would return to two, and shortly after announced that they would They were suspended until next January 1.
“The measure is adopted after the technical management in the efficient management of the reservoirs of the hydroelectric plants and the results achieved thanks to the ‘Ecuador lights up with your savings’ campaign, which achieved a reduction of more than 4% in daily energy consumption “said the official.
Despite electrical rationing, the population did not skimp on decorations and in the north of Quito, for example, a rosary of lights forms a large Christmas tree that decorates the four floors of a building.
Shopping centers also have abundant interior and exterior decorations, and boulevards, such as the United Nations, in a commercial area in the center-north of Quito, present immense Christmas decorations that flood one side of the traditional La Carolina park with lights.
huge manger
At the top of El Panecillo hill, in the historic center of Quito, last Friday the Municipality lit the traditional nativity scene, considered the highest in Latin America, as it rises to 3,000 meters above sea level.
In addition, the figures of the three Wise Men measure between 29 and 31 meters each, while the figure of Saint Joseph measures 38 meters and the donkey, the cow and the cradle measure 6 meters each.
The immense sculpture of the Virgin of Legarda, which has crowned El Panecillo for several years, represents the mother of the Child Jesus.
Claudia Otero, general manager of the Metropolitan Public Company of Mobility and Public Works, justified preserving the tradition of lighting the giant nativity scene, which has been carried out since 2005, “since the figures will be illuminated with LED technology, which is very low consumption energy, and at established times”.
In addition, he reiterated that ornamental lighting contributes to the dynamism of the economy, generates sources of income for entrepreneurs and scares away crime as public spaces become crowded.
Precisely the Christmas decorations have attracted thousands of visitors to the La Carolina park area, where entire families can be seen walking between arches of colored lights, strolling among illuminated Christmas trees or taking photographs near colorful reindeer, which stand out at night. for its lighting, while vendors offer their products.
The numbers
After 13 years without blackouts, Ecuador returned to rationing this year, but the history of electricity cuts is not new in the country and, for example, at the end of 1992 the so-called “Sixto hour” was established, since the then President Sixto Durán-Ballén ordered that the activities begin an hour earlier.
Thus, children in uniforms were seen waiting for school transportation protected by the dawn light. “Is this sacrifice of getting up an hour earlier preferable, or do we prefer rationing?” Durán-Ballén argued about the questioned measure, which lasted just over two months.
As then, now the economic losses in the productive sector are also counted in the millions, while uncertainty remains about whether the end-of-year rains and the Government’s actions will be enough to start 2024 without rationing or there will be schedules of power outages down or up.
