Power shortage in Baghdad and suburbs

The Iraqi capital has been suffering from a power shortage for nearly a month, local people say. Ministry of Power officials say that problems with the main generators for the city will take longer than expected to be repaired and that a shortage of petrol is also delaying work. Residents and shopkeepers say they have lost most of the food kept in refrigerators and complain that there is increasing insecurity due to blackouts, with power only available for two hours in the morning and sometimes only two hours at night. Those who are lucky enough to have small generators say that they cannot produce enough electricity and that the price of fuel to run them is so high that they simply can't afford to run them. "I have to go to buy food for my family every day and cannot store anything," Abbas di'Lemi, a resident of the Sadr city suburb of Baghdad, told IRIN. "I don't have money to afford a generator and my family is going through a very difficult situation. The minister tells us that improvements are everywhere, but I cannot see them," di'Lemi added. Ra'ad Shalal, a senior official of the Ministry of Power, told IRIN that they were doing all they could with the present capacity to repair power stations. "The situation should be improved at any time. We expected it to be done earlier, but the security circumstances delayed our work," he said. Pharmacists in the capital said that they too have suffered with the loss of many vital and expensive medicines that should be kept cool. Some medical centres which depend on generators also claim huge losses in vaccines. "It's really terrible. We are in need of vaccines and now the ones that we have should be thrown away," Dr Linda Muhammad, a paediatrician from the Yarmouk health centre, told IRIN. Baghdad used to have approximately 18 hours a day of constant electricity until August of this year. Shalal explained that recent events and the curfew also delayed repairs as workers had to go home earlier. In the 10 months before the conflict that overthrew Saddam Hussein, the power supply was regular and almost 24 hours per day in the capital in both winter and summer. "We understand that the situation is critical, but Iraqis should trust us," Shalal said. He added that energy consumption had increased during the winter and that much more investment was required for this sector. This situation is contrary to US and Iraqi interim government statements saying that power output in Iraq has increased since the fall of Saddam Hussein. According to a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) fact sheet issued in September 2004, most areas of Iraq were receiving between 11 and 15 hours of electricity per day. The agency says daily production of electricity now peaks at nearly 6,000 MW, compared to the pre-conflict level of 4,400 MW. Meanwhile, people in the capital are beginning to show their frustrations, with a recent demonstration demanding improvement in power supplies. "For Iraqis, power is the most important start for a democracy. We don't want elections if there is no power supply in our homes. It will get worse and worse," Fatah Abdu Kareem, a spokesman for the demonstration in Baghdad, told IRIN.