Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1504697
14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 JULY 2023 NEWS MATTHEW FARRUGIA RESTAURANTS lost a sizeable chunk of income during the pow- er cuts over the past two weeks as they had to refuse and cancel cus- tomers' bookings. MaltaToday visited several res- taurants in Birgu and Kalkara but the story they told us was similar to that of other localities impacted by the lengthy power outages. Restaurants along the Birgu wa- terfront and near Bighi in Kalkara told this newspaper that they were hit by power outages on Friday 21 July, where most of them spent the entire day with no power and had to turn customers away. Unfortu- nately, power did not return to the area before Saturday afternoon, meaning that the restaurants also lost out on lunch service. D Kalkara Regatta, a restaurant near the Kalkara marina told Mal- taToday that during the power cuts, the business had to throw away around €6,000 worth of food. This sum, does not include the income lost from bookings that were cancelled. To make matters worse, the owner of the business told MaltaToday that the power cut occurred on one of the busiest days of the summer. The owner of the restaurant, Kenneth Camilleri also expressed his frustration towards the fact that during the power outages, his business had to rent generators in order to try and stay open, but to no avail. Camilleri said that when he was reaching out to people to find a generator to rent, he was told that many of the generators on hand were already being rent- ed to restaurants and businesses affected by the power cuts. This restaurant owner was not alone in his frustration. The own- er of a small restaurant at the Bir- gu waterfront who did not wish to be named said his business had to throw away between €350 and €400 worth of stock. Another restaurant in Kalkara stated that no less than 53 book- ings were cancelled due to the power cuts, which does not in- clude the customers who come without reservations, which, ac- cording to the owner, averages between 25 to 35 customers on a Friday. The owner said they were very worried regarding the even- tuality of prolonged periods where their restaurant would practically be burning money. Other restaurant owners told MaltaToday that due to the un- certainty surrounding when pow- er would be restored, "we had to keep staff around just to wait in case the power came back," meaning that workers were paid for a full day's work while the res- taurants made no income on the day. Meanwhile, other areas of Malta where restaurants were not as af- fected as those in Birgu and Kalka- ra still had problems to operate. For instance, restaurants in Wied iż-Żurrieq had fewer hours with- out electricity, but when speaking to this newspaper, many owners said that the blackouts posed dif- ferent issues. When asked whether or not the power cuts had affected their work, one owner said that the res- taurant had not suffered any ma- jor losses, but jokingly said, "look at my eyes. I couldn't sleep at all without air conditioning these past few days." The overall impact of the exten- sive power cuts has yet to be quan- tified but small business owners are keeping their fingers crossed the relatively cooler weather will persist throughout the rest of summer. Meanwhile, at an urgent meeting of the Malta Council for Econom- ic and Social Development last Friday, the social partners asked for compensation to mitigate the impact of the power cuts on busi- nesses and consumers. Government has committed itself to issue some form of com- pensation but did not provide the social partners with any details. Prime Minister Robert Abela and Energy Minister Miriam Dalli told the MCESD that government will double the yearly budget to improve the electricity distribu- tion network to €30 million from €15 million in an effort to improve resilience. Heatwaves and power cuts Restaurants lose big on wasted food and cancelled bookings LUKE VELLA MATER Dei Hospital's administration has concluded its incident report into the 50-minute power cut at the hospital in the early hours of Tuesday morning. As Malta grappled with a 10-day heat- wave, during which hours-long power cuts affected numerous localities around Malta and Gozo, MDH was left without electricity between 1:30am and 2:15am. A spokesperson for the Health Min- istry also revealed that the report was forwarded to an internal investigation board set up by the Permanent Secre- tary's office. The internal investigation is still ongoing. According to sources, the generators failed to kick in, leaving a number of wards in the sweltering heat. "Whilst power was maintained in crit- ical equipment in areas such as ITU, NPICU and theatres, other parts of the hospital had an outage for 52 minutes before the in-house engineering team remedied the situation, and all normal activity continued," a spokesperson had told MaltaToday. As Malta registered temperatures high- er than 40°C for six straight days, it hit a new record of electricity consumption with peak load reaching 649MW on Monday. So far, 15 people have died in Mal- ta since 17 July due to dehydration or hyperthermia, according to the Health Ministry. Hyperthermia is an elevated body tem- perature above the normal range, lead- ing to symptoms like sweating, dehydra- tion, rapid breathing, and confusion. If not promptly treated, it can progress to heat exhaustion or heatstroke and be- come life-threatening. Several unurgent operations were also postponed after the hospital emergency ward experienced an influx of admis- sions due to the heatwave. "Therefore, in order to ensure the high- est level of care for all patients, the Hospi- tal Administration decided to postpone some of the elective and non-urgent sur- geries that were scheduled for tomorrow and the following days," the ministry had said. As a result of the power cut crisis, the government announced that it would be setting up a new authority to monitor the impact of climate change and coor- dinate actions to mitigate its effects. Prime Minister Robert Abela also re- vealed that the yearly investment of €15 million into the electrical distribution infrastructure, will be doubled to €30 million for the upcoming year. Report into Mater Dei Hospital's 50-minute power cut incident concluded The state hospital was left without electricity between 1:30am and 2:15am on Tuesday morning, as the generators failed to kick in