A monkey has caused a nationwide power outage. The incident took place in the South Asian country of Sri Lanka. A monkey has entered the power grid, causing a nationwide blackout. The disturbance began around 11:30 am local time on Sunday. After about 3 hours of efforts, the problem was not resolved. As a result, the general public of the country has suffered. The French news agency AFP reported this news.
The country’s Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody told reporters that the problem began in a grid in a suburb of southern Colombo. The entire system became unbalanced when a monkey came into contact with the grid transformer.
Although power has been restored in some places, it is not certain how long it will take for the situation to return to normal. The minister said that engineers are doing their best to normalize the situation as soon as possible. There was no comment on the monkey’s condition in the AFP report.
Sri Lanka endured a long power outage that lasted for several months in the summer of 2022 due to a deep economic crisis. The energy crisis forced thermal power plants to conserve power for up to 13 hours a day. In April 2022, the country defaulted on its $46 billion foreign debt, losing the ability to import food, fuel, medicine and other essential goods due to a lack of foreign exchange. This unprecedented economic disaster forced the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign. His successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, secured a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Dissanayake won the election in September and was elected as the new president. He announced that he would continue the strict austerity policies of his predecessor.
He also pledged to continue the IMF’s four-year bailout program. His administration completed a long-awaited debt restructuring deal last year. This brought Sri Lanka out of the list of bankrupt states through agreements with bilateral and private creditors.
