Iraqis sweat it out as power crisis drags on

Many of Iraq's citizens think the country's electricity supply is in the worst shape it has been in decades.

No power to the people: Electricity shortages forced Iraq to shut down its main refinery and oilfields earlier this year.

For a prime example of a dysfunctional power network, look no further than Iraq. It is not entirely the country's fault, but many Iraqi citizens think their electricity supply is in its worst shape in decades, even less capable of delivering reliable power than the power networks of some of the world's poorest countries. Iraq, with oil revenues projected to reach US$70 billion (Dh257bn) this year and a budget surplus, is not among the world's poorest countries, although it is among the least secure, and in need of a comprehensive infrastructure overhaul following decades of war and misrule.

Among the many problems that need fixing in Iraq, the electricity situation is especially galling to the country's long-suffering citizens, who were expecting improvements after the ouster of the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein. Few improvements have materialised during the US occupation of Iraq, now in its fourth year, despite $4.3bn of American government spending aimed at curing the Gulf nation's power woes.

"Shortage of electricity is the main problem that the Iraqi people suffer from," an anonymous Iraqi journalist wrote recently on a weblog site run by McClatchy Newspapers, based in Baghdad. "After March of 2003, we hoped that the situation would be better, but soon we realised that the situation [had become] the worst in all times." Neglect of Iraq's power system began in the early 1980s, when Saddam Hussein directed the country's resources to a war against Iran. Electricity shortages worsened in the 1990s, following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the ensuing Gulf War. According to the weblogger, Saddam used power disruptions during this period to punish Iraqis threatening to revolt.

So it is not hard to imagine how frustrated and disillusioned most Iraqis must have felt when the arrival of US and British troops in their country failed to stop the frequent power cuts. For their part, US authorities have been frustrated by the numerous attacks on Iraqi power installations that have combined with corruption and government ineptitude to fritter away the considerable sums spent on trying to rebuild the country's decrepit electricity infrastructure.

The resulting situation is not just inconvenient to Baghdad families forced to swelter through the summer without reliable refrigeration, air conditioning or even simple electric fans. It is affecting all sectors of Iraq's economy. Even basic food production has suffered, with power cuts preventing farmers from drawing water from wells or pumping it from rivers and canals to irrigate wheat fields.

Iraq's weather this year has made a bad situation worse. The past winter, one of the coldest on record, brought less than 40 per cent of the season's normal rainfall, cutting hydroelectricity supplies by about 50 per cent. The summer has brought drought. In April, Charles Ries, the US State Department's co-ordinator for economic transition in Iraq, accurately predicted that the country would be unable to meet spiking summer power demand, even though new power plants were due to come on line.

But inclement weather has merely highlighted the untenable underlying state of Iraq's electricity infrastructure. No country with a decent power grid would have allowed power cuts to shut down a significant part of its most important industry, as Iraq did in January when its northern oilfields and main refinery were idle due to electricity shortages. Iraq's Oil Ministry blamed the Electricity Ministry for the interruption. The Electricity Ministry said the Oil Ministry had failed to supply power plants with enough fuel oil.

Even the recent downturn in violence in Iraq may be exacerbating the power shortage. It has sparked a surge in economic activity, helping to drive up electricity demand. So what, if anything, would help? Throwing money at the problem is not the answer. Iraq is not short of money. It is short of electricity. Above all, it needs security of power supply - something that could be vastly improved by hooking up the country's inadequate transmission network to neighbouring grids.

Iran has already got the message. In March, its government announced plans to link the country's electricity grid to Iraq's at nine border points. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, laced his offer with anti-American rhetoric, blaming much of the damage to Iraq's electricity infrastructure on US bombing. But that does not make the power-sharing agreement less constructive. Syria has supplied electricity to Iraq intermittently since 2003.

Turkey also supplies electricity to parts of northern Iraq, and last year agreed to a more extensive link-up between parts of its power grid and Iraq's that would allow it to extend power exports further. However, in January it cut supplies to Duhok, an Iraqi border town, on the pretext that Iraq's government had failed to supply Turkey with agreed amounts of gas. At the time, the Turkish army was shelling Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq. The Kurdish separatist movement has been blamed for numerous attacks in Turkey.

Despite, or even because of, such setbacks, Iraq should seek further links with neighbouring power grids. It should certainly connect its electricity network to the GCC power grid, of which the northern portion is due to be completed next year, through its border with Kuwait. The flow of benefits would not be one-way. The Gulf region, facing its own power crisis, desperately needs more gas to fuel power plants. Iraq has plenty of gas in deposits that could be developed far quicker than, say, the UAE's technically challenging deep reserves of toxic sour gas. Iraq is even planning to export gas to Europe from a large field in its western desert. Middle Eastern energy companies could help with gas development, and their participation might be more acceptable to Iraq than that of western oil producers.

For their part, GCC countries more stable than Iraq are better positioned to build and maintain new power plants. GCC states with power stations fuelled by Iraqi gas could share the extra electricity output with their northern neighbour. As a practical way to help Iraq, that could be even more useful than the UAE's recent cancellation of $4bn in Iraqi foreign debt. @Email:[e-mail]