Colombo, Oct 17 Sri Lanka witnessed an islandwide power outage lasting around seven hours on Saturday following what the government described as a sudden system failure.
The outage began around noon and electricity was restored across the island by 7 pm, the government’s National System Operator said.
Water supplies, internet services and mobile connectivity were affected during the outage, while authorities worked to restore electricity in stages.
“Due to a sudden system failure, the whole island suffered an electricity breakdown,” Energy Minister Anura Karunatilaka said.
While power supply resumed in a few areas by 5.30 pm, residents in most parts of the island had to wait until 7 pm for restoration.
The cause of the breakdown was not immediately known.
The minister said a failure at one of the hydropower stations in the central hill country, detected on Friday, could have been a reason for the outage.
He added that owners of rooftop solar panels must remain disconnected from the grid until the power system was fixed.
The country’s water supply agency had also warned people against wasting water, saying the prolonged power outage could hamper supplies.
(PTI News)
