Martín sits by the window waiting for a miraculous rain to bring some relief after 15 days of unbearable heat.
He believes, with more desire than certainty, that
the decrease in temperature can help light to return to
the more than 70,000 homes that are still in the dark.
Living without light is chaos.
Living without electricity in the midst of a historic heat wave is a disaster.
While the red alert of the National Meteorological Service is still in force, the National Electricity Regulatory Entity (ENRE) specified that this Wednesday some 77,000 houses woke up without electricity.
Of course,
the people affected by the cuts at Edesur and Edenor are many more.
This Wednesday the off areas are concentrated in Tristán Suárez, Lomas de Zamora, Temperley, Monte Grande, Ezeiza, Adrogué, Wilde, Almagro, Villa Riachuelo and Villa Devoto.
Agustina lives in Villa General Mitre, in Juan B. Justo at 5100. Her story, and that of her neighbors, concentrates all the dramas of going through days without light (and without water).
"In my building there is a high population of elderly people without the possibility of going up and down the stairs. Among the neighbors there is a woman who underwent heart surgery a year ago and another diabetic, insulin dependent. Also a friend of my 6-year-old son, who has diabetes and has peaks of hypoglycemia," he describes.
The chaos forced Agustina to leave her apartment.
"I suffer from low blood pressure and my husband is medicated for heart disease. I have two children in primary school and the youngest started first grade, with the adaptation and everything. He is so traumatized that all he says is 'ma, has the light come back on
? Can we go home?'
".
"Many people left the building, but many others have nowhere to go. A family lives in a tent on the terrace balcony for 15 days," he says.
The southern suburbs went out suddenly this Tuesday afternoon and many of the residents have been in the dark ever since.
Barbara is one of those affected.
"I have a one-and-a-half-year-old baby and a 5-year-old boy. One as an adult can stand it,
but they can't,
" she laments.
Martín, the young man who stood in front of the window to wait for the rain, lives in Adrogué, also to the south of the suburbs.
He is a teacher in schools in the area, so he knows that the disaster is collective.
"We have been without electricity for three days and we came from a week in which we had been cut off several times. We sleep poorly, eat poorly, lose money due to fresh produce and medication that we have to throw away, and no one answers the phone" , says.
The latter that Martín recounts is a constant in the testimonies of the affected users:
there are no responses from the electricity supply companies
or government agencies.
A silence that is quite similar to abuse.
This Tuesday the outlook was even worse: on (another) sweltering day, with a thermal that exceeded 42 degrees, the peak of cuts reached some 160,000 users.
Many got tired and took to the streets to protest.
In fact, due to the demonstrations, the service of the Roca and Belgrano trains was interrupted and traffic on the Buenos Aires-La Plata highway was also affected.
look too
The nursing home that has not had electricity for 4 days: they had to lower patients down the stairs
The ENRE presents a technical report to Congress to evaluate the termination of the contract with Edesur