Heat & Electricity

It is so hot, since it is summer. Here in Iraq, temperature reaches degrees which non-Iraqis could not imagine. Yesterday I took a thermometer and put it in the direct sun. It astonishingly rose passing the scale marks. It seems that the manufacturer do not imagine heat on the globe my go up more than fifty degrees centigrade (122 Fahrenheit), so the scale ends at 52 C. I think no one of you believe that the thermometer went up above 60 C (140 F). Such heat drives human being to insanity. Water & electricity become essential, but there is a tragic shortage in both. Nowadays, electricity is supplied less than four hours per day. One can imagine life without cold water or air-conditioning systems.

Electricity plays great role in everyday life, especially in work. Thousands of workers have nothing to do but waiting for electricity to run their businesses for an hour. Local generators spread widely as an alternative. Still, these generators, causing lot of noise, can not substitute the national grid. Using local generators means a significant increment in fuel demand, which causes very long queues at gas stations. Queuing up for hours under the burning sun turns any person crazy. Fuel shortage leads to black market. Owners of local generators increase the charges, which leads to many quarrels between them and the consumers. It is normal to use guns in such incidents. In one of these quarrels a son of the generator owner was killed, in another a grenade was used to blow up the generator and so forth. Even the local generators can not run endless time under hot temperature, so the owners switch them off to cool the engines. This requires small generators in every house to fill the gap. And more fuel, engine oil, maintenance is required; more noise is produced.

A "Report to Congress Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq" (pdf) issued by the Pentagon says:

"The number of monthly attacks on Iraq’s infrastructure, such as electricity generation and oil facilities, has decreased since the election, but continue to have an adverse impact on electricity transmission and oil exports. The Iraqi Government, with Coalition support, is leading an increased effort to enhance infrastructure security, such as hardening key nodes and expanding the number and capabilities of personnel guarding pipelines."

It is a report which few Iraqis know about, and even those who know pay little attention to it since on the ground, tangibly, nothing moves forward. The most important things for Iraqis in a boiling summer are water supplies & electricity. These two services are targeted by the insurgents to increase grumblings among Iraqis. People here in Iraq drew a very optimistic image, before the American invasion, about what kind of revolutionary changes in their live they were expecting by the Americans. A question is asked by the majority of people "What kind of super power is US, since it failed to reconstruct the electricity sector after about two and half year of occupation". US is viewed as the most scientifically & technically developed nation, still it can not build an electricity power station within two years.