As Temperatures Rise, Iraq Faces Continued Power Outtages

By Sarah Price and Rawsam Latif
June 12, 2009 (The Palestine Telegraph)


Yasser Rahman extends wires from a large generator in a neighborhood to surrounding homes, whose families, without his help, would spend a lot of time in the dark.

"The work is very serious but we have to work to live," he says. There are few job opportunities in Iraq right now, he explains, and even fewer for those, like him, who lack a degree. So, he takes the work he can get - powering homes and government buildings by extending wires from large generators to the waiting buildings. In addition to extending power from his own generator to houses and government buildings in the area, he also extends power lines from other districts. But it is a rigged operation, and things could turn dangerous for him at any time during the process.

"I know that this work may put my life in danger," he says, "but it's better than being out of work."

With the continuing problem of dropped electrical service in both the public and private sectors, there is an increasing demand for those with Yasser's talents. The labor sector in Iraq is growing jobs and businesses associated with this crucial occupation. Workers earn an average of $50 a month per home for their effort.

"The work I am doing is a kind of humanitarian service to the citizens," says generator owner Omar Rafed Maamuri, who has been unable to get a government job for the past five years. This work, he says, allows him to provide for his family, while making life a bit easier for his fellow Iraqis, who are displeased with the government's lack of service and solutions to the ongoing electricity crisis, and the fact that the citizens have had to take this job on themselves. But the generators are no long-term solution, he says. "They are expensive, unreliable, and use a lot of fuel."

"It's not a process that is fully adequate, but it is better than nothing, with the scarcity of the national power supply," says Abu Ala Al-Zubaidi, 44, from the Noaab Zbbat neighborhood, east of Baghdad. It is not a perfect solution, he explains, but it at least allows them to run a fan and have cold water in the hot summers.

"The Iraqi government must work hard to repair the electrical energy and rehabilitate the dilapidated infrastructure," he says. "We rent electricity from those big generators and we spend so much money. When the summer comes, it's hell for us. Iraqis can't continue to cope with these large and frequent interruptions of power."

However, according to Iraq's Aswat al-Iraq news agency, an official from the Ministry of Electricity announced on June 10 that electricity production has increased by 25% in 2009, and that "this year's production will provide two-thirds of the country's electricity needs... A fair distribution will supply all citizens with electricity for 12 hours a day."

But according to Sultan Aziz, Director of the Media Office of the Ministry of Electricity, the efforts are marred by a lack of funding by the prime minister. The ministry has contracts in place with companies that would facilitate providing the services, but they are awaiting funding from the prime minister towards the signing of the contracts.

There is also a dispute over the division of duties. "We bear the burden of providing fuel for power plants, but this work is the prerogative of the Ministry of Oil, and we need to protect the power lines, and that is the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior, not us," says Aziz. "The road has been difficult for the Ministry of Electricity of Iraq to keep the electric system alive, but we are optimistic about a prosperous future."

In the meantime, Iraqis face months of temperatures expected to be upward of 110 degrees, and in some areas of the country, no more than an hour of electricity a day.