Nepalis face 16-hour daily power cuts by February

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Nepal’s crippling electricity shortage is set to worsen, with the Himalayan nation facing power cuts of 16 hours a day by mid-February, officials said on Friday, in a fresh blow to the Maoist-led government. Power generation has fallen because mountain snows are not melting fast enough in winter and river levels are low, hampering an economy which has not recovered from a decade-long civil war. The government has declared a national power emergency, which it expects to last up to five years, and the electricity authority said daily power cuts would increase to 12 hours from nine hours from next week, and to 16 hours from mid-February. "The situation will only worsen as we have no way to meet the demand," senior Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) official Sher Singh Bhat said.