DOHA: Over 100 members of nearly 60 Asian families have been forced to live outdoor since Sunday night following power disruption at their residential complex.
The hapless lot includes around 50 children and 30 women.
The complex at Fareej Abdul Azees, near Jaida Flyover, experienced an outage around 8pm.
Initially, some residents tried to fix the snag by themselves. When they failed, they informed customer care centre at Qatar General Electricity and Water Authority (Kahramaa).
Kahramaa staff arrived and said residents were not supposed to repair any faulty power systems. The staff refused to attend to the fault unless landlords talked directly to Kahramaa, residents claimed, adding they left without fixing the problem.
“We spoke to landlords several times. We do not know whether they contacted Kahramaa or not. It’s now 24 hours, and there is no response from Kahramaa. The families, along with children and women, have been out in the hot and humid weather for the past 24 hours,” a member of one of the families told The Peninsula.
“Some families went to friends and relatives last night. But most of our friends have left the country for holidays.
“Most families, along with their children, were forced to spent the day in their cars.
“The weather is too hot to spend indoors without air-conditioners. I spent over 15 hours in my car and cafeterias with my wife and kids today,” said another resident. According to another tenant, one of the children in his neighbouring flat suffered breathing problem around midnight while they were beating the heat on the open terrace. The girl was rushed to a nearby private clinic and discharged after medication.
The families live in three huge blocks in the complex. Most of them are from the Philippines, India and Bangladesh.
Weather charts showed Qatar’s maximum temperature soared 47 degree Celsius yesterday.
The Peninsula
