Sri Lanka is gradually restoring power after a nationwide blackout that affected the island’s 22 million people. Priority is being given to critical services such as medical facilities and water purification plants.
Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody explained that the power cut was caused by a monkey coming into contact with a transformer on the country’s electrical grid, creating an imbalance in the system.
The outage began at approximately 11:00 AM local time (05:30 GMT) on Sunday, forcing many residents to rely on backup generators. Authorities say it may take several hours for power to be fully restored.
The incident quickly gained attention on social media, with many users criticizing the authorities and humorously commenting on the cause of the disruption.
“A rogue monkey knocked out Sri Lanka’s entire power grid after triggering a total failure at a substation in Colombo,” said X user Mario Nawfal. He added, “One monkey = total chaos. Time to rethink infrastructure?”
Another user, Sreeni R, shared a picture of Hanuman, a Hindu god depicted with a monkey’s face, joking about the situation. “Sri Lanka tasted monkey business in the past,” he wrote.
Jamila Husain, editor-in-chief of the Daily Mirror, posted, “Only in Sri Lanka can a group of monkeys fighting inside a power station cause an islandwide power outage.”
In a Monday report, Daily Mirror noted that engineers have been urging successive governments for years to upgrade the country’s power grid to avoid frequent blackouts. One senior engineer explained, “The national power grid is in such a weakened state that frequent islandwide power outages may be expected if there is a disturbance in even one of our lines.”
