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Iraqi Kurds struggle to generate own
supplies
25.10.2007
By Farman Abdul-Rahman in Sulaimaniyah (ICR No. 235)
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Most power projects have not been completed or made
little or no impact.
October
25, 2007
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan Region 'Iraq'
The authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan have sought to
deal with their power shortages by striking its own
electricity provision deals, but locals have seen
little benefit from them.
In the north of Iraq, buildings are going up and oil
wells are being drilled, while tens of thousands of
Iraqi families escaping violence in the south have
fled to Kurdish areas to set up businesses or find
work.
But Iraqi Kurdistan’s infrastructure cannot provide
for the region’s four million population, never mind
cope with the additional pressure of new businesses
and residents.
Electricity shortages are the main source of public
dissatisfaction with the authorities in Erbil and
Sulaimaniyah. The third Iraqi Kurdish province,
Duhok, receives power from neighbouring Turkey and
cuts are rare.
Electricity supplies in Iraqi Kurdistan have been
irregular ever since it broke away from Saddam
Hussein’s Iraq to become a semi-autonomous region 16
years ago, leaving it cut off from the country’s
power grid.
Nearly two decades later, the KRG has made little
headway in improving the electricity supply despite
its high level of autonomy. The local authorities
have promised for years that power provision will
get better, but fed up residents say they will only
believe it when they see it.
“The government doesn’t solve the [electricity]
crisis,” said Sirwan Mohammad, editor-in-chief of
the Kurdish magazine Pishasazi, which covers the
north’s industries. “It only manages the problem.”
The KRG’s ministry of electricity reports it can
only provide about half of the power demanded. The
region is now re-connected to the central
government’s weak national power grid, but the
authorities here seem to feel that the answer to
their woes is to look for alternative suppliers.
The KRG has signed several electricity provision
deals in recent years, most of which have never been
completed or made minimal or no impact.
In one example, the authorities paid one million US
dollars in 2006 to extend electricity pylons into
Iran to receive supplies from its neighbour. The
deal failed.
The regional government, which has close ties with
Iran, balked when the Iranians demanded a minimum
ten-year power supply contract. Shawnim Mohammed,
head of the Kurdistan regional electricity
directorate, said the proposed length of the
contract was too long.
Mohammed, however, says difficulties around
acquiring a reliable source of power is just part of
the problem, “The issue is very complicated. Even if
we have more power the problem won’t be solved
because the transmission and distribution systems
are very old and need to be completely overhauled.”
The government insists it is making concerted
efforts to improve electricity and build proper
infrastructure and says that its current projects
will provide Iraqi Kurdistan with about 80 per cent
power needs.
Sulaimaniyah province has at least 243 million
dollars worth of electricity-generating projects
underway, while a 300 million dollar liquefied
natural gas-fuelled power plant is being built in
Erbil that would generate about 500 megawatts of
power.
The World Bank has given the KRG a 40 million dollar
loan for a hydropower project in Dukan and
Derbendikhan in Sulaimaniyah province as part of a
400 million dollar loan package to improve Iraq’s
electricity system.
But the projects are not all running smoothly. The
Erbil power plant, which was announced last year and
was supposed to be completed in July, will not be
finished until next year.
Foreign engineers left Erbil - one of Iraq’s safest
provinces - following a May 2007 truck bomb in the
city and technical problems have further held up the
project, said KRG minister of electricity Hushyar
Siwalili.
The Kurdistan Industrial Union, an NGO that monitors
business in the region, estimates that 300 small
businesses have recently had to close because they
didn’t have enough electricity and couldn’t afford
private generators.
Up to 100 generators were sold every day in
Sulaimaniyah province in 2005 and 2006. But while
they’ve offered residents some respite from the
power shortages, they’ve put them at risk of serious
injury and even death.
More than 2,000 people were burned and 520 died in
generator-related accidents in 2005 and 2006,
according to figures from Sulaimaniyah Emergency
Hospital.
Most of accidents have occurred when people have
tried to refuel their generators without turning
them off, such as 18-year -old Bryar Suleiman, who
was set ablaze in February when his generator caught
fire.
“If the government would have solved the electricity
problem, we would not have resorted to using
generators,” said Bryar’s mother, Fawziyah. “My son
would not have died.”
Farman Abdul-Rahman is an IWPR correspondent in
Sulaimaniyah.
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