As elections loom, Ecuador’s energy crisis still seems short on solutions

As elections loom, Ecuador’s energy crisis still seems short on solutions

Lanterns and candles became indispensable in Ecuadorian homes during the second half of 2024. A year after the first blackouts, the country’s energy crisis was worsening. Planned power outages, which had been called due to the severe drought affecting Ecuador’s main source of electricity – hydroelectric plants – had grown from two hours a day to 14 hours a day. No city escaped this reality. From one day to the next, Ecuador had seemingly regress…

The province of Esmeraldas, in Ecuador, now faces an environmental catastrophe of historic proportions. A massive spill of 25,000 barrels of oil, originated in March 2025 after the rupture of the Trans-Ecuadorian Pipeline, has forced the Government to declare the provincial emergency.The black spot advances, leaving a deep wound in the ecosystem and submerging thousands of inhabitants in anguish.The rupture and the implacable black tide The disa…

The province of Esmeraldas faces one of the worst environmental catastrophes of the last three decades after a spill of 25,000 barrels of crude oil.