Three high-pressure electricity towers were sabotaged Friday on highways connecting four different cities, creating damage worth 1,000,000 EGP ($139,800), the Ministry of Electricity said in a Friday statement.
Power generators, cellphone and electricity towers have recently been targets for acts of sabotage amid Egypt’s ongoing power crisis and frequent blackouts. The ministry said it is working on providing alternative cables to feed the affected areas until maintenance works are complete.
“It is difficult to fully secure electricity towers placed in desert areas. There are 140,000 electricity towers across the country,” Electricity Holding Company head GaberDesouki told Youm7 July 27 after six explosions in electrical towers inJuly led to a loss of around 223 million EGP ($31 million USD;) 23 million EGP in repairs while the other 200 million were lost due to consumers not receiving power.
On Friday, a 220-kilo volt electricity tower between Gharbia and Menoufia governorates collapsed after its legs were bombed, and it would be repaired in two weeks at 1,200,000 EGP.
One leg of another tower of 66-kilo volts in Beheira governorate was damaged and will also take a week and 100,000 EGP to restore.
A third tower of 500-kilo volts between Qalyubia and Gharbiagovernorates was targeted, but only one leg was affected. The repairs would take a week and 100,000 EGP. A tower was targeted in the same area in July.
On Thursday, two power generators and two cell phone towers in Sharqia were torched, while another power generator was torched in Gharbia governorate.
On Tuesday, an electricity tower collapsed to a bombing in Sharqia.
The government has described these incidents, which have occurred in the two months that mark the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi and the violent dispersal of Rabaa al-Adaweya sit-in, as “terrorist acts.”