El Niño Brings 2016’s Drought and Venezuela Holy Week Forced Vacations

Summary: The dry weather that El Niño brings to South America’s Pacific coasts dried water bodies and provoked Venezuela Holy Week forced vacations in March 2016.

Guri Dam, officially known as Central Hidroeléctrica Simón Bolívar (Simon Bolivar Hydroelectric Plant), is experiencing El Niño-influenced low water levels: Davidusb, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Many private businesses and factories and government buildings and offices are under presidential orders to implement energy-saving Venezuela Holy Week forced vacations five days, from March 21, 2016, through March 25, 2016.

The closings became effective all five days, not the traditional Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, because of the tenuousness of over 70 percent of power sources. Venezuelan citizens count upon two-day closings the week leading into celebrations of Good Saturday and Easter Sunday since Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are national holidays. Two successive announcements by Nicolás Maduro Moros, 65th President of Venezuela since April 19, 2013, described the range of operations that are required to close temporarily.

The latest presidential announcement, released March 16, 2016, expanded mandatory compliance from just government offices and schools to much of the private sector’s businesses and factories.

Clariana Boccardo, bakery owner-operator on the southeast side of national capital Santiago de León de Caracas, feels that energy-saving Venezuela Holy Week forced vacations hurt entrepreneurs. She gave the argument that “[I]f those days count as holidays, we’d also have to pay our workers 150% more” since bakeries make money Holy Week.

President Maduro hopes that the three extra days of reduced access to power sources will result in as much as 40 percent savings in electricity output. The austerity measure is in effect because of local and national concerns over the rate of depletion of a natural resource whose usage is almost countrywide.

Venezuela juggles economic policies that maintain world market roles as a gas- and oil-producing country with political commitments as one of the world’s practitioners of socialism.

A ranking among the world’s top five countries in terms of gas reserves and of gas and oil production keeps Venezuela’s economy dependent upon export earnings. An abundance of lakes, ponds, rivers, streams and waterfalls lets the Venezuelan Republic rely far less upon fuel than upon hydroelectric power in production of electricity.

President Maduro mentioned, as a reason for implementing, Monday through Friday, energy-saving Venezuela Holy Week forced vacations, 48 percent of Venezuela experiencing blackouts the previous week. He noted, as the underlying cause of the blackouts, El Niño effects of dry weather drying water bodies down to levels insufficient for generating hydroelectric power.

Research at El Colegio de Ingenieros de Venezuela (The College of Engineers of Venezuela) in Caracas obtains cause-and-effect interactions between increased incidences of droughts and blackouts.

College engineers predict that El Central Hidroeléctrico Simón Bolívar may collapse next month since the Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Plant water levels are the lowest since 2003. The plant, also known as La Presa de Guri (the Guri Dam), qualifies as a major power source, with 70 percent of total hydroelectric power output.

Francisco Martínez, president of La Federación de Cámaras y Asociaciones de Comercio y Producción de Venezuela (The Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce), rejects drought-related explanations. He suggests “mala planificación” (bad planning) and “pésima ejecución” (worse execution) while Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (Democratic Unity Roundtable) urges putting clocks forward 30 minutes.

The Roundtable thinks that returning to Venezuela’s former time zone four, not four-and-one-half, hours behind Universal Coordinated Time saves the Republic 300 megawatts every day.

Nicolás Maduro Moros, 65th President of Venezuela: OKDIARIO @okdiario via Twitter March 23, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Guri Dam (Central Hidroeléctrica Simón Bolívar): Davidusb, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guri_Dam_in_Venezuela.JPG

Nicolás Maduro Moros, 65th President of Venezuela: OKDIARIO @okdiario via Twitter March 23, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/okdiario/status/712772209618644993

For further information:

Chinchetru, Antonio José. 23 March 2016. “Maduro impone vacaciones forzosas a los venezolanos para no gastar electricidad.” OK Diario > Economía.
Available @ http://okdiario.com/economia/maduro-impone-vacaciones-forzosas-a-los-venezolanos-para-no-gastar-electricidad-95060#

OKDIARIO @okdiario. 23 March 2016. "Maduro impone vacaciones forzosas a los venezolanos para no gastar electricidad." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/okdiario/status/712772209618644993

Rueda, Manuel. 16 March 2016. “Venezuela Sends Country on Forced Vacation to Save Energy.” Fusion > Last One Out, Turn off the Lights.
Available @ http://fusion.net/story/281554/venezuela-sends-country-on-forced-vacation-to-save-energy/