Cape Town — The City of Cape Town and the Nablus Municipality of Palestine signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen working relations between the two cities.

This significant partnership follows the United Nations African Meeting in support of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, which took place in here, earlier this week

Speaking at the signing ceremony on Friday Mayoral Committee member, Saleem Mowzer said Palestinian people were facing a major crisis in the field of electricity.

"Of high priority is the restoration of basic infrastructure, including electricity infrastructure, supply and distribution system which have collapsed and damaged as a result of constant Israeli military intrusion," he said.

The result of war damages in the electricity infrastructure had left numerous settlements without a power supply.

About 65 percent of power cut in the City of Nablus was experienced by the beginning of the military invasion with sever damage to transformers, high-voltage overhead lines and cables, electricity masts and meters, branch and consumer networks.

Restoration and repair initiatives had been difficult because of the shortage of material, inability of workers to access affected areas due to military blockades and the extent of damage.

In addition, the absence of meter readers and network supervisors in the 18 towns serviced by the Nablus Municipality had resulted to illegal connections.

Councillors Mowzer said through the memorandum of understanding, the city of Cape Town would assist the Nablus Municipality to restore war damages and ageing electricity infrastructure especially in areas of technical cooperation.

He said those included advising on Institutional reform of the power and electricity distribution industry, identifying effective revenue protection measures including prepayment electricity metering system and sharing knowledge, information, expertise and experience with regard to energy efficiency.

Cape Town is recognised as a leading African and world city in the electricity and energy sector.

Councillor Mowzer said the City of Cape Town would also assist the Nablus Municipality in the areas of capacity building, technical and managerial knowledge sharing and skills transfer.

Deputy Manager of the Electricity Department for the Nablus Municipality, Salam Zagha said the cost of war-damages in that area was estimated at 3 million United States dollars