The residents of Addu gathered at the airport in protest on Wednesday night as the heads of Fenaka Corporation visited the southern city as it remains plagued by frequent power outages.
Fenaka – which provides utility services in Addu – installed a 1.8-megawatt generator set on February 21 to fix the power outages in the linked islands of the city. But the power outages continued and got worse this week amid a rise in power consumption with the beginning of Ramadan.
Fenaka’s managing director Mohamed Najah and deputy managing director Mohamed Arif travelled to Addu on Wednesday night amid the rising tensions.
Dozens of demonstrators gathered at the Gan International Airport as they arrived, demanding a permanent solution to the frequent power outages, and asking for an update on the generator the utility company promised to bring in “very soon.”
The previous day, Fenaka said it was working on sending an additional 1.8-megawatt generator to Addu next week.
A spokesperson from the Addu city council told Sun that the power went out city-wide close to the Fajr prayer on Thursday. He expressed concern over the situation.
Tensions have reached boiling point as the power outages continue into Ramadan.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday night, Addu’s mayor Ali Nizar accused the government of failure to resolve the power outages, denying the city’s residents the fundamental right to electricity.
 He accused state institutions of failing to properly address the issue, and warned the people have no choice but to rise in protest.
Back in January, Central Hithadhoo MP Ahmed Azaan Marzooq sought to take the heads of Fenaka Corporation summoned for questioning by the Parliament’s State-owned Enterprises Committee, accusing the company of negligence in addressing the prolonged issue.
Addu is the most populous city outside of Male’ with some 25,000 residents. Fenaka attributes the power outages in Addu to a rise in demand and damage to cables during the road development project in the city.