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Iraq's Power System Under Frequent Attack
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Power pylons toppled. Fuel pipelines blown apart. Foreign engineers gunned down and yanked out. Insurgents are stepping up attacks on Iraq's fragile infrastructure even as the U.S. pumps in billions of dollars to rebuild it. But with electricity in Baghdad flowing at less than half prewar levels and a scorching summer ahead, many Iraqis see the struggle to ensure adequate power as a metaphor for a U.S.-led reconstruction mission gone bad.In Baghdad, anger is boiling over as the city of 5 million inches into a summer where temperatures are expected to rise to 120 degrees. On Friday, it was 106. To cope, most people rely on roaring generators to fuel air conditioners and fans. At night they bring out lanterns and candles, and sleep on rooftops outdoors. Restoring stable electricity supplies is widely considered a benchmark of progress for Iraq's American rulers since they toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003. But the U.S. struggle to turn the lights on - and keep them on - hasn't been easy. Every step forward seems followed by another step back. On June 3, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers resuscitated a turbine at northwest Iraq's 660 megawatt Haditha hydroelectric dam, marking the first time it operated at full power since 1990. A few days later, insurgents bombed a pipeline fueling the 700 megawatt Musayyib power plant south of Baghdad, cutting its capacity in half, said Hamid al-Suri, an Electricity Ministry spokesman. Saboteurs struck again Wednesday in central Iraq, blowing up another pipeline at Beiji, forcing a 10 percent cut on the national grid. Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi condemned the violence, saying such strikes had "caused a nationwide loss of power of more than four hours per day." He said saboteurs have attacked vital oil pipelines 130 times in the last seven months, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and lost revenues, and were increasingly targeting infrastructure. Guerrilla fighters have also targeted foreign experts the coalition has contracted to help carry out technical repairs and bring in badly needed spare parts. Iraqi authorities have deployed about 6,000 "electricity police" to guard key sites over the last three months to prevent the sabotage, al-Suri said. But a senior coalition official said attacks were lately "more spectacular and aggressive." "It seems now there is real focus on the infrastructure, to wreak havoc, to turn the Iraqis against the interim government," the official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Before the war, Baghdad residents enjoyed about 20 hours of electricity a day. Today, they're lucky to get eight, usually broken into two-hour runs, or less. A coalition electricity spokesman conceded the capital had "significantly less power," but said Saddam's regime drained supplies from the rest of the country to keep the lights on in Baghdad. After a $1 billion American aid injection, Iraq's national grid briefly topped prewar levels of 4,400 megawatts in March and averaged about 3,900 megawatts in May. Baghdad's problem is that American authorities redistributed electricity evenly across the country - everybody now gets 8-12 hours a day. Despite the redistribution, Iraqis all over the country complain about electricity. Even in places where the power situation is better than before the war, Iraqis grumble that if the Americans can Allawi, whose government assumes power July 1, said: "It's our people that are sitting in the dark because of these cowardly and traitorous attacks, not our occupiers." Posted by: Steve White 2004-06-12 |
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