Factory owners from an industrial parks in Kabul said lack of electricity, in a long term, has affected their products as they have “only eight hours of power” every day.

The investors told TOLOnews that they are damaged thousands of dollars with each break of electricity during the day.

“When the electricity goes off for some while, the plastic and other materials which stuck inside the machines are wasted. Every time the electricity goes off, the factory owners are affected between $200 to $1,000 USD,” said Najibullah, owner of a plastic factory in Kabul.

The factory owners called on government to provide sufficient electricity to the industrial parks.

“The industrial parks should have 24 hours electricity. We send our products to all provinces. Lack of electricity will affect our products,” said Ehsan, a factory owner. 

“We are not receiving the required electricity despite that the cost is very high for us (factory owners). Electricity shortage has increased recently,” said Siyam Psarlai, spokesman for Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries.

Meanwhile, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat, the country’s electricity company, said they continue their efforts to increase their capacity for industrial parks.

“The need of the factories for electricity has increased unprecedently. Now they need more than 100 megawatts of power. But our capacity is the same as the past. We will face this problem until the new power line is connected,” said Waheedullah Tawhidi, spokesman for the company.

The factory owners said they will need 160 megawatts of power for industrial parks in the coming winter season.