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Venezuela unveils emergency energy-saving plan

Xinhua, April 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has unveiled an emergency energy-saving plan that includes a four-day workweek for civil servants to help cut electricity consumption.

Maduro announced the temporary 60-day plan late Wednesday during a weekly television program, indicating that a drought caused by this year's El Nino weather phenomenon has affected the nation's reservoirs, which generate nearly 70 percent of the country's electricity.

"Today we have launched a new phase of the eight-week plan to attend to the El Nino emergency," said Maduro.

According to a special government decree, all the Fridays in April and May will be considered off days.

The plan also calls on basic industries with high energy use to cut back on power consumption by some 20 percent, among other measures.

"I ask for the entire country's maximum cooperation," said Maduro. "I'm absolutely sure that we are going to overcome this, with the smallest impact on Venezuelan families."

The temporary four-day workweek plan was devised after Maduro gave workers a full week off in March during the Holy Week, which saved 400 megawatts of electricity and prevented reservoirs from dropping 22 centimeters, Venezuela's public television network VTV reported. Endit