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Electricity is one of the major issues that troubles the mind of Iraqis , depriving them of sleep , forcing them to work harder to pay for the alternatives , preventing many from doing their jobs and increase the stress for Iraqis in general. This photo is for some of the wires that goes out of our neighborhood generator.
I read a few articles here and there about rebuilding and improving the national grid and that the ministry of electricity needs about 50$ Billion to do so! and 36-48 months to finish the work in this security conditions ! as Kareem Wahid said , the minister of the electricity.
He also said that 96 new power plant will be built , 44 of them working on diesel fuel which is abundant as the minister said!!! the rest will operate on heavy fuel.
He also said that the national grid is producing 5 000 mega watt while it should produce 9 000 mega watt to cut the long periods of outages.
I don't know much about electricity because I'm a dentist not an electrician , but I think what the national grid is producing is more than half of what it should produce , that means the electricity should be available at least for 8 or 10 hours!because he said to cut the long periods not 24/7 hours of electricity? then I would like to ask him why the electricity didn't came to my block for 5 days now? 5 days without electricity and he is saying that it produces more than half of what should it produce . Well , I know the answer , because they are not being fair in giving the electricity.for example ; the neighboring block has electricity almost all day long , most of Al-Kademiyah have electricity all the day , but there's almost no electricity in Adhamyia.where ever there is a house for someone in the government the electricity never outages in his neighborhood.if they are fair in distributing the electricity then the problem will be a lot easier.
there is another thing i want to ask the minister about ? are you a fool or a liar?he said that the diesel fuel is abundant!!! then why it has been about two months with out electricity in our clinic ? wasn't it because we don't have diesel fuel? the clinic is governmental it's not a private clinic.Where is the abundant diesel fuel? I think he is both a liar and a fool.
Some studies said that about 30% of the refined fuel is stolen and sold to the black market , 30% is some thing large but that means the diesel should be late for a week not more than two moths if it's abundant as he said , something else , who is stealing the 30% of fuel?it's the ministry it self , in the past the fuel trucks are taken by the gangs on the roads but not anymore because they are accompanied by police , national Guards and sometimes US troops , then who is stealing the 30% , it obvious and doesn't need more talking.they are stealing it , they are selling it to the black market , as one of the "fuel lords" told me that they buy it from the refinery for higher prices and the difference is in the pockets of the ministry or the employees.
Some people suggest building solar plants or wind turbines , from my opinion that is a great idea but I don't know much about this subject , but I think if it works in Iraq someone should have done it already , I think the wind turbines are not suitable because of the sand and sand storms , it's very dusty in Iraq , if you clean the floor today , it will be covered by dust 2 days later , I think the dust will cause troubles to the wind turbines , but the solar plants is a very good idea , I don't know what is keeping people from having them , I'll do some search in the Internet and ask some people about it .
another thing about the time to finish the power plants , he said it takes 36-48 months , we have heard this thing before , we heard that the electricity will be excellent by the year 2007 , that's what they said in 2003.If it takes so much time how did Saddam finish the rebuilding of the power plants in less than a year ? was he a wizard or something?it was in a worst condition after the gulf war , it was totally destroyed .it's true that it wasn't very good right after the war , but the outages were much less than now.it was according to a schedule.and before the beginning of the war we used to have electricity at least 20 hours a day, that's the ultimate dream now.
Another obstacle is the corruption and stealing , many high officials in the ministries of oil and electricity are corrupted and they take their own cut (which is large) out of the money that should be used for the improvement of the infrastructures. most of the employees are corrupted from the highest rank to the lowest , they never do anything without an extra payment or a share.
the security conditions is also something major , why does the militants or the insurgents attack the electricity lines? the oil lines is something we know , to prevent the US from benefiting from the Iraqi oil, that's what they say , but why the high voltage towers and the people who works for the ministry of electricity?from my point of view , they are attacking the employees because they look at them as traitors , because they work with the government and the US , and sure they want everything bad to happen to Iraq , and about the high voltage towers and cables , I'll tell a story from an eye witness who lives in a town near the high voltage towers , he said that he knows a guy who was a sniper in the old Iraqi army , they say that he is very sharp , and never misses a shot , he is handicapped , he was injured in the war and uses a wheel chair now , some merchants or contractors as he said comes to him almost every day with sniper ammo , a bottle of liqueur and some good cash , what he does is to shoot the high tension cables from both sides and then it will fall and they can take it . another story from the same person ; every few days some men comes in a truck then they tie the high voltage towers to the truck and they bend it and cut the cables to use it , the media blames the insurgents for these acts , it's true they do this sometimes but most of the times it's an organized theft , whether it's by the militants , gangs , ministry employee or the minister him self , even Al-Maliki is taking his share from every aspect possible , they are taking their share of Iraq and leave us with our every day struggle.
19 comments:
Those dirty rotten scoundrels deserve a special place in hell.
Rising to the humanitarian challenge in Iraq, Oxfam International briefing paper (for Arabic version, see link on righthand side).
While horrific violence dominates the lives of millions of ordinary people inside Iraq, another kind of crisis, also due to the impact of war, has been slowly unfolding. Up to eight million people are now in need of emergency assistance. This figure includes:
* four million people who are ‘food-insecure and in dire need of different types of humanitarian assistance’
* more than two million displaced people inside Iraq
* over two million Iraqis in neighboring countries, mainly Syria and Jordan, making this the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world.
This paper describes the humanitarian situation facing ordinary Iraqis and argues that, while violence and a failure to protect fundamental human rights pose the greatest problems, humanitarian needs such as food, shelter, water and sanitation must be given more attention.
There is a list of recommended measures and actions that various agencies/Iraqi government should take. I am not optimistic that any of these recommendations will be adopted by anyone.
I think corruption within Iraq really is a major stumbling block to getting things back to some semblance of normalcy.
I know they have been working on this, but like all things there, it doesn't move quickly.
I have seen this issue compared to the aftermath of the war in 1991 elsewhere as well. I really don't think that is a fair comparison. Right now everything has collapsed and is having to be resewn together almost from scratch. There are just so many other issues, not least of which is the ongoing violence, that it's like slogging through mud to get things done.
As long as Iraqis condone the deliberate sabotage, like you described Mohammed, then there are going to be problems. If that story of the sniper is accurate, then those who know the people responsible should be turning them into the police or coalition forces.
Solar power is still relatively new here too. It is gradually being incorporated into different areas of the country. But as long as the infrastructure in Iraq is being rebuilt almost from the ground up, it might be an interesting way to go. And it would free up your fuel for other things, such as transportation.
You know, I was just here the other day and I must have flitted away before I read this latest post. *sigh* Too many blogs to check. :)
Solar, geothermal, fuel cells, (wind or water power where it can be done) these are the way of the future. They are all planet friendly, unlike oil, gas and coal. Then for powering vehicles there's a whole other range of options.
Iraq's Refugee Crisis Worsens - Syria Is Feeling The Strain Of Huge Influx Of Iraqis, 7 Sept 2007
As a result of the increasing stress from the refugee crisis, the Syrian government recently announced a new visa policy which, as of Sept. 10, will only allow professionals to enter the country - effectively shutting out thousands of people.
I just noticed the new paypal button at the top right hand of your blog. That's really great you've got that going. It's set up in British pounds, but whatever country a person is in, they just follow the steps and paypal converts the money in your denomination to British pounds. I just did it:)
Solar and wind can complement other powersources but not replace them. A national grid can have a maximum of about 20% dependency on such sources or it will collapse when there is no wind or on a cloudy day. And this goes for a well maintained and modern national grid, in Iraqs case the percentage may be lower still.
Hydropower is really the very best option there is. It's cheap, effective, clean and dependable. However it's naturally limited since you need rivers to dam up. Few countries have enough rivers to have a high degree of hydropower. Iraq does have rivers but another factor is that the projects needed to construct hydropower stations are huge.
Ideally solar can be used locally, like on the roof of your own house, to complement your outtake from the general powergrid. It really works best for heating since solarpanels converting solar energy to heat are pretty effective whereas panels converting solar power to electricity are not yet that good.
Wind is also a good local complement but obviously not for single households but rather for regions. It is still just a complement though. Also I share Mohammeds doubts about how well wind turbines could function with frequent sandstorms and dusty conditions. It would, it seems, put much higher demands on insulating the turbines and maintaining them than if they were used elsewhere.
To sum it up: There are some options to use alternative energy as complements. But in Iraqs case the only realistic way to get a satisfactory power situation in a foreseeable future is to repair old and build new powerstations based on fossile fuels such as oil and diesel. This and a halt or decrease in corruption and sabotage could improve the situation quite rapidly. Other options will simply not work.
Or you could build some nuclear plants! Possibly even buy the enriched uranium from Iran! :)
US surge 'failure' says Iraq poll
Most Iraqis think the US troop surge of the past six months has been a failure, a nationwide opinion poll suggests. ... In general, the poll shows that people feel more pessimistic than they did six months ago about their everyday lives and about the prospects for improvement in the medium and long term. A large majority say access to daily necessities such as electricity, clean water and fuel is very bad. The poll was conducted for the BBC, ABC News of America and NHK of Japan by D3 Systems and KA Research Ltd.
It took place between 17 and 24 August and has a margin of error of + or - 2.5%.
Meanwhile, Betrayus goes on digging a bigger hole for US troops.
Petraeus buys time for Iraq strategy
A note about the US strategy of aligning itself with tribal leaders:
A vivid account by Michael Gordon in the New York Times about how US forces are linking up with the tribal leaders also indicated how dangerous the area still is - Gordon was nearly blown up in a sophisticated ambush and the US colonel guiding him was wounded.
And according to Yahia Said of the London School of Economics, tribal loyalties are not reliable.
"They can turn on a dime. These same people were swearing their undying loyalty to Saddam Hussein," he commented.
A pattern seems to be emerging - delay, delay, delay in the futile hope that events will suddenly "justify" everything the US has done - or until it can be arranged for the next President to get all the blame. Or perhaps the US wants as many Brits killed as possible.
US 'delayed UK Basra withdrawal'
The withdrawal of British troops from Basra was delayed by five months due to political pressure from the US, a UK military commander in Iraq has said.
Brig James Bashall told the Daily Telegraph that a pull-out in April "would have been the right thing to do but politics prevented that".
Eleven Brits died who need not have done. You can ignore the quote from the Ministry of Defence - they have to put political gloss on the situation.
And all the while the Mahdi Army is organising better and equipping itself with US-issue weapons (see my comment on Healing Iraq).
They did restore the electrical power to where it was in '03 Mohammed. Problem is,demand is up 70% in just 4 years. Saddam made sure Baghdad had power,but the rest of the country had less than 6 hours. Now,Basra and Mosul have all they want,but don't want to share with Baghdad.
The most promising renewable energy is hot rock geothermal. A very deep shaft is drilled,and the earth heats the water pumped down. Another shaft brings up the steam. The planet could produce 50,000 times current needs without breaking a sweat. The water is re-usable and there's no pollution. Still a few years away though.
He was wrong about the diesal of course. It will have to be imported from Kuwait. Iraq has the same problem as Iran. Swimming in oil,but not enough refineries. They take years to build. And,like electricity,demand for refined fuels has soared since Saddan bit the dust.
Yes, it's a "farce", and the government is not going to fix it, on its own. As the Anbar turnaround shows, local organization with backup can do wonders. Waiting for the Minister of Somethingorother to do it for you won't.
brianfh, I don't know which media outlets you get your information from, but there are no turnaround "wonders" in Anbar. It isn't safe, and its "calm" is artificially produced.
Is al-Anbar Province really paradise, as Bush suggested?
Al-Anbar residents killed 20 US troops in July. The total US fatalities in July were 79 according to icasualties.org, and some of those were presumably from accidents, etc. So al-Anbar, despite being reduced to the stone age, managed to kill a fourth or more of all US troops killed in combat in July. Al-Anbar is roughly 1/24 of Iraq by population. So it killed six times more US troops than we would have expected based on its proportion of the Iraqi population.
That's what the Bushies are celebrating, that the deadly al-Anbar has been wrestled down to only killing a fourth of the US troops killed in a month. It used to be more.
In mid-July, There were about 100 violent attacks in a single week in al-Anbar. That's a bright spot. That's progress. Since the year before, there were 400 violent attacks in that same period. Jan Cole, 4 Sept 2007
More that you won't hear on Fox.
The president’s comments about Anbar being evidence that the surge is working are ludicrous. But let’s go further back, and see if Anbar holds any hope of embracing an Iraqi democracy. In the February 2005 parliamentary election, only 2% of eligible voters in Anbar cast a ballot. In the election later that year, 97% of Anbar voters rejected the national constitution. And now we’re pinning our hopes for lasting stability in a baathist stronghold on heavily arming the same factions led by "tribal chieftains" who not long ago were ordering their followers to shoot at and blow up our soldiers and marines. Daily Kos, 5 Sept 2007
From two comments on this site, Anbar:
a side deal that undermines the central sovereign government then yeah we are successful in interfering and undermining democracy.
... Anbar is not a microcosm of Iraq. The area is almost entirely Sunni Arab now, with virtually all of the Shi’a and Kurds having fled. It’s tribal, and one of the major tribes broke with Al’qaedi in Iraq (which is not Al’qaedi, incidentally) and began fighting on the side of the US because they were fed up with the fundamentalists.
In other words, there are no ethnic conflicts to speak of in the region and the success is not so much a success of the US military effort as a failure of Al’qaedi in Iraq’s effort.
From another comment on that Think Progress article,
Being able to land at a US air base with 10,000 troops making sure an Iraqi doesn’t come within 10.5 miles of Bush is not wonderful news.
At the beginning of your post you ask why there has been no electricity for 5 days. At the end, you explain why: people are stealing the cables. If you could follow the cables from your house back to the power station, you would find several breaks. However, it also seems that Iraq needs about six new power stations._____I think a solar panel on each house would at least supply power for lighting and maybe a computer, if not enough for air conditioning. It is surprising that there are not businesses selling solar panels in Baghdad.
I am so sorry for the horrible problems you and your family have had to endure. I hope things get better for you soon.
I did have one thought that might be helpful. I wonder if solar power would be useful so that each house could help generate it's own electricity before and after the grid gets repaired. I understand this may be expensive but in the long run, each home would be more self sufficient and less reliant on the utilities.
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