BUTUAN CITY — A power outage that began on 1 December has left thousands of residents on Siargao Island in the dark, prompting calls for a state of calamity to be declared.

Local officials said that a special session of the provincial council is scheduled for Monday to discuss the declaration.

Aside from the power outage, residents are also facing water shortages as many rely on pumps to supply water to their homes according to Janis Medina Reginio of the Surigao del Norte government information office.

The outage was caused by a line ground fault that tripped a breaker at a substation in Claver, disrupting the submarine cable connecting the island to the main power grid in Mindanao.

Local electric cooperative Siargao Electric Cooperative, Inc. (SIARELCO) is leading repair efforts, but progress has been slow as divers and technical experts have been searching for the fault in the cable.

Governor Robert Lyndon Barbers has convened the provincial disaster management council to coordinate relief efforts, including fuel and generator shipments.

Meantime, Representative Francisco Jose Matugas II has also pledged to provide 30 generator sets and 300 solar panels to aid in recovery efforts.