Sharjah: Prolonged ongoing power cuts have made life difficult for the emirate's residents and business establishments.

People forced to go without electricity for up to 10 hours at a time said they feel abandoned as the Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (Sewa) is not responding to requests for information.

Industrial areas 1, 3, 11, 13, 17 and Muwaileh have been experiencing power outages for the last 28 days. Parts of Al Rolla, Abu Bu Tina, Al Nahda, Al Khan and Al Majaz were also affected on Monday.

An economist said Sharjah is losing between Dh5 million to Dh7 million a day and up to 35 per cent of workshops and small scale businesses stand affected.

"Industrial firms have incurred huge losses in the last four weeks. They will not be able to continue if power supply is not regularised," he said.

Children are among the worst hit by the outages.

"I cannot let my children sit in the car for six hours daily. It is dangerous as they can breathe in harmful fumes," said Bala, a resident of industrial area 3. "They cannot sleep and are unable to attend school."

A doctor said she is suffering from H1N1 and the power outages are making her life miserable.

Business and workshop owners in the industrial areas are afraid they will lose work contracts. They complain that they cannot set up generators as Sewa deems it illegal.

"I cancelled some of the contracts due by the end of Ramadan and paid clients all the penalties. I know for sure that I will not be able to finish the work by the end of the month," Ayad Bara'a, owner of a workshop in industrial area 11, said.

Ali Maqdad, manager of a plastic factory in industrial area 1, said factories are operating at around 50 per cent capacity.