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Hell and high water: Life in 'the world's most miserable country' keeps getting worse by Christopher Woody on Apr 27, 2016, 2:00 PM Advertisement
 Venezuela has already earned the dubious title of "world's most miserable country," and while that moniker is based strictly on economic conditions, as measured by the Cato Institute, recent weeks have seen the country shriveled by drought and inundated by flooding, proving that both working and living in Venezuela are increasingly difficult tasks. SEE ALSO: Life on the streets of Caracas, the world's most violent city While Venezuela has seen shortages of a variety of basic consumer goods and medical products, recent drought-related shortages of water and electricity have added a level of severity to the country's economic and social crises.  Source: Americas Society
Persistent drought conditions have forced down the water level at Guri dam, a massive facility in eastern Venezuela that supplies 60% of the country's energy and most of the energy used in Caracas, the nation's capital. Venezuela, which has the largest oil reserves in the world, is heavily reliant on hydropower for domestic energy.  When the final part of was finished in 1986, the Guri dam was the largest hydroelectrical station in the world, according to The Washington Post. It was build as part of an effort to diversify the country's energy consumption, relying on hydroelectric at home and shipping the country's vast oil wealth abroad. Churing out over 10 megawatts of power, the Guri dam puts out five times the power produced by the Hoover Dam, according to The Post. Source: Venezuela Al Dia, Bloomberg, CNBC, Vice News
"Guri dam provides 75% of the power generation for Caracas, so the capital — previously shielded from issues such as outages and rationing due to its political importance — is extremely vulnerable," the Eurasia Group, a global research and consultancy firm, said in a March 21 report.  Source: Bloomberg
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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