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Sabotage Aimed at Keeping Electric Power for Outlying Regions
EFL:
Saboteurs who toppled 500 electric transmission towers across Iraq are not just looters or insurgents, but apparently also utility workers or others in outlying regions who want to deny power to Baghdad and keep it for themselves, U.S. and Iraqi engineers and officials report. Provincial cities are turning the tables after years under Saddam Hussein when they were starved of power so the capital could burn watts around the clock. "I know that Karbala and Hillah toppled the towers so as not to share with others," said a leading Iraqi electrical engineer, Baghdad Universityâs Nihad Mohammed al-Rawi, referring to two southern cities.
| "It's our juice, and you can't have it!" |
An Army Corps of Engineers task force from the United States is gathering this week in Baghdad to begin righting the downed pylons, among other urgent jobs in the campaign to restore Iraqâs electrical system to what it was before the U.S.-British invasion in March.
The felled towers and severed lines are routinely blamed by U.S. officials on die-hard pro-Saddam "dead-enders" or on looters seeking valuable copper wiring. National power output, slowly improving, was believed to have hit 4,000 megawatts this week, approaching the prewar peak of 4,400, said Andy Bearpark, director of operations and infrastructure for the occupation agency, the Coalition Provisional Authority. But engineers say Iraq needs at least 6,000 megawatts, and Baghdad itself is meeting barely half its need. But Bearpark agrees that other Iraqis, not politically or criminally motivated, are a third force of saboteurs. "You are a disgruntled local resident who thinks, âI have 24-hour power for the first time. Let me go and knock the tower down and be sure of it,â" he said in an interview at the authorityâs headquarters in Saddamâs old Republican Palace.
He noted, however, that the southern city of Nasiriyah "is receiving 24 hours of electricity, which is something it has never gotten before." Some southern cities had electric power only half the day in the past, when Saddamâs regime neglected that Shiite Muslim region to solidify support in the capital and Iraqâs surrounding Sunni Muslim heartland.
| All that money, all that fuel, and that's the best Sammy could do? He sure had lots of nice palaces, though. And statues... |
Army engineers and al-Rawi, head of Baghdad Universityâs electrical engineering department, say theyâre certain local authorities brought down many towers. "We have a control center in Baghdad and all power plants nationwide are feeding this center," al-Rawi said. "If you want to cut the connection from any power plant to the center, you must drop the tower." He said "thereâs no question" this is whatâs happening.
| Maybe now would be the time to retool to independent grids... |
Capt. Christopher Korpela, 29, of Boulder, Colo., who has worked on Iraq projects for months, noted that only an estimated 100 towers were down right after the war, most apparently from U.S. bombing. "Now there are 600 towers down around the country," said the Army Reserve engineer, who believes those wanting to keep electricity in the provinces are a significant factor. Of the falling towers, Maj. Edward C. Fort, 48, of Sciota, Ill., said, "We werenât able to keep up with it." He also noted that "Nasiriyahâs got all the power."
| "Hello, Abdul? This is Mahmoud, down in Nasiriyah. Hey, send us down some more light bulbs, wouldja?" |
The two officers, interviewed at Baghdadâs al-Doura power plant, where theyâre helping oversee major rehabilitation, belong to the 439th Engineers Battalion, based in Bismarck, N.D. The new task force, embarking on an intensive three-month campaign, will comprise up to 60 Army engineers, said Corps of Engineers spokeswoman Marilyn Phipps. It will be led by Brig. Gen. Steven Hawkins, commander of the corps region based in Cincinnati. One of their prime tasks will be to deploy enough giant cranes to get towers upright and transmission lines restored. Protecting those lines will then be a top priority, Bearpark said, involving everything from aerial reconnaissance to village guards.
Protecting transmission lines is a bitch.
Posted by: Steve 2003-10-01 |
