Damage to power lines hits Baghdad residents hard

Interruptions to the electricity supply in Baghdad, lasting for two or three hours at a time, several times a day, are causing havoc for thousands of residents of the Iraqi capital, particularly during the stifling summer heat that regularly soars to 45 degrees Centigrade. “I had to throw away 150 pieces of meat a week ago because it went bad in the heat,” 50 year-old Hamid Ramadani, manager of the Spring Time restaurant on Kharada Street in Baghdad, told IRIN. “I can’t arrange the food for my customers if I have to throw it in the garbage because it’s rotten,” he lamented. A man passing by Ramadani's establishment said it was not just restaurants that were suffering badly. “In homes, at work, in the shops, no one can do any work, because there is no electricity,” the passer-by, Ahmed Amel, told IRIN. “Maybe it’s on for two hours then off for three. We have many difficulties,” he said. The interruptions are caused largely by damage to the power lines that supply the capital. “We repair transmission lines around Baghdad, and what we do is systematically affected,” Roger Guarda, acting director of the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), told IRIN in Baghdad. UN workers are repairing transmission lines around the country using nearly US $20 million provided by donors. "As soon as workers get one part of a key line working, another part is often immediately damaged," Abdul Aziz Abdalla Ahmed, a senior programme officer in charge of the repair project for UNDP, told IRIN. “The way I see it, is that they’re focusing on the grid around Baghdad and other lines connecting the southern region to the center.” Unidentified persons bring down high-voltage transmission towers that supply electricity to Baghdad, often by shooting them with rocket-propelled grenades or other explosive devices, the aid workers said. At least two electricity towers near the road, about 150 km northwest of Baghdad, are twisted and bent at the top. The power lines that used to be hooked to the towers are lying on the road. Once a power line is on the ground, looters usually strip them of valuable copper and aluminum wire. "As they drive around the country, the repair workers often see lines on the ground just days after they’ve been fixed," Ahmed explained. Paul Bremer, head of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority running Iraq, recently announced that electricity would be restored to pre-war levels by the end of September as long as saboteurs were not involved in the equation. Officials recently hired hundreds of fixed-site guards to watch over power lines, oil pipelines and key buildings around the country. Some Baghdad residents believe that the power cuts are not just down to looting. They are convinced that loyalists of the former Saddam Hussein regime have been bringing down the power lines. "They used to control the country and now that coalition forces have come, they’re very frustrated," 25 year-old Sala Abdul Kala, told IRIN as he sat sipping a cup of tea at a cafe. “Fedayeen [armed Saddam loyalists] are making the explosions that damage the wires,” he claimed. “Baath Socialists have no money now, so they feel angry.” However, business owners say power cuts are not unusual in Iraq. Electricity rationing was common over the past few years, so groups of neighbours would get together to buy a generator, from which each would receive a limited amount of electricity, according to Mohammed Rubayi, owner of “Hello Iraq", a new commercial phone call centre. "Sometimes a wealthy person in a city neighbourhood would often buy a large generator and charge neighbours a small fee to hook up to the main line," he said. Many industrial-size generators adorn sidewalks in rich areas of the city. “I have money, so I can buy generators," Rubayi added, "but other families have nothing. They’re really miserable right now.