Private power providers in Baghdad are selling electricity at almost four times the maximum legal price, exploiting shortages and stifling summer heat while crime bosses pilfer dwindling public supplies.
Even though suppliers are breaking the law, people feel compelled to pay up in an unregulated market because they fear children or elderly relatives could die in summer temperatures that have hit 54˚C.
The government’s rationing of cheap electricity from a crumbling national grid has opened up lucrative opportunities for businessmen who own generators, but the biggest problem is theft from the grid for private resale.
PHOTO: AFP
“They control and exploit us,” said Sarmad Mohammed, a Baghdad shopkeeper, who has recently been paying a provider 26,000 dinars (US$22) per unit of electricity when the price limit set by the authorities is 7,000 dinars.
“I do not know who I can complain to. They exploit us. It is shameful,” said the 35-year-old, who lives on the relatively prosperous Palestine Street in the east of the capital.
“My young children cannot bear the high temperatures,” he said, explaining how he felt there was no option but to pay privately for the power he needs to run air-conditioning units and refrigerate foodstuffs at home.
Iraq’s daily power generation averages 8,000 megawatts, while demand in high temperatures is typically more than 14,000 megawatts, forcing rationing.
Although the electricity ministry publishes a schedule, and aims to provide around one hour of power in every four, it is universally acknowledged as being unreliable.
Security remains the biggest issue for Baghdad politicians more than seven years after the US-led invasion that toppled former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, but the lack of mains electricity is currently the main concern of the people.
Demonstrations over power rationing in the southern city of Basra last month saw two protesters shot dead by police. The issue prompted the electricity minister’s resignation and led the government to restrict the right of assembly.
The inadequate mains supply amid massive public demand has also led to criminal “warlords” hacking into the national grid and using their own cables to resell power privately to local homes, making the situation much worse.
Ali Adnan, 33, who lives in Zayouna, an upscale neighborhood in central Baghdad, said the illegal trade was booming.
“The owner of the generator is selling us power from the government network for high prices, we know that,” he said. “But what can we do? We cannot live without electricity because of the deadly heat.”
But even those fortunate enough to be able to pay for a private electricity supply are not exempt from dodgy practices, often losing their supply on the pretext that users have exceeded the amount of power they paid for.
“I canceled my subscription and bought my own small generator because the owner was always blackmailing me,” a shopkeeper who wanted to be known only as Abu Saif, said in Karrada, a busy commercial district in central Baghdad.
“He always claimed I used more than my agreed limit,” he added, admitting that competition between providers largely dictates the price.
While interim Electricity Minister Hussein al-Shahristani has ordered power stations throughout the country to up their output, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said that at least two more years of shortages lie ahead.
US Ambassador Christopher Hill told reporters on Tuesday that Baghdad politicians had to make swift decisions and invest in services to calm public anger.
“It’s up 55 percent since 2003,” he said, referring to power generation, but “the demand figure is up 75 percent. Demand is outstripping supply.”
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
At a calligraphy class in Hanoi, Hoang Thi Thanh Huyen slides her brush across the page to form the letters and tonal marks of Vietnam’s unique modern script, in part a legacy of French colonial rule. The history of romanized Vietnamese, or Quoc Ngu, links the arrival of the first Christian missionaries, colonization by the French and the rise to power of the Communist Party of Vietnam. It is now reflected in the country’s “bamboo diplomacy” approach of seeking strength through flexibility, or looking to stay on good terms with the world’s major powers. A month after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) visited,
RSS