BAGHDAD — When the roar of the local generator fills the neighborhood, Muna Hussein’s 3-year-old son breaks into dancing. He knows their home will soon have electricity so he can watch cartoons.
Love them or hate them, but Baghdad residents are obsessed with the thousands of generators around the city that they rely on for electricity because the national power grid is so notoriously unreliable.
Love them because generators are the only way to ensure desperately needed air conditioners keep running in Iraq’s sweltering summer, when temperatures can reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Hate them because of the deafening noise, the ugly maze of wires marring the city’s face and, above all, the cost — an extra outlay of $50 a month or more for already cash-strapped Iraqis.
The ubiquitous cables snaking across streets and up buildings to link homes with neighborhood generators “are the veins of life,” said Hussein, 37, a teacher and a mother of two boys. “Life would be impossible without the power provided by the generators.”
The summer heat has brought an electricity crisis for Iraq’s government, faced with public anger over increasing costs and sporadic power.
Two people were killed last weekend in the southern port city of Basra when protests over power shortages turned violent and security forces fired into the crowd. Similar demonstrations have been held nearly every day since, forcing the resignation of Electricity Minister Karim Waheed.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has urged Iraqis to be patient, saying it will likely take more than two years for the electricity grid to be fixed.
Billions of dollars have been spent rebuilding Iraq’s electricity network, which was damaged by U.S. attacks in the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 invasion and subsequent looting and insurgent targeting.
But most neighborhoods in the capital get only five to seven hours of power a day from the grid. Everyone turns to private generators for relief in their stifling homes.
