BAGHDAD — When the power fails and there is no gas for the generator, Mohammed Azzawi has a plan to make it through the stifling summer nights. He collects the fans from old computer hard drives and powers them with backup batteries.
Faced with their fifth summer without a regular supply of electricity, Baghdad residents have come up with some novel ways to cool off.
Decades of corruption, neglect and war have left Iraq's electricity grid on the verge of collapse. Iraq is generating enough power to meet only half the nationwide demand, and most Baghdad residents are down to an hour or two of electricity a day. The shortfalls are the worst since U.S.-led forces ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003, Electricity Ministry spokesman Aziz Shimari said.
The unreliable electricity supply is a source of constant frustration to Iraqis, who cite it as one of the biggest failings of the U.S.-led invasion. The constant blackouts become unbearable during the summer, when the mercury climbs to between 110 and 120 degrees.
Only the lucky few who live near essential services, such as hospitals and water treatment plants, receive nearly continuous power. The rest improvise.
Those who can afford it have generators. But with fuel in short supply and costing about $4 a gallon on the black market, many families can keep them on only a few hours a day.
Entrepreneurs have filled the gap. In most neighborhoods, residents can buy additional hours from a shared generator that delivers power through a web of wires running to each customer's home.
Civil servant Qais Yaseen pays nearly $50 a month for five amperes from a shared generator, enough to power a refrigerator, lights and a few fans. Running an air conditioner takes at least twice that amount.
The service is a source of constant arguments in the neighborhood. Tempers flare when the power does not kick in at the allotted time.
"Once a week, they would claim that their generator has broken down, and it takes a couple of days to fix it," Yaseen complained. "They operate less hours than agreed and always raise the price under the pretext that diesel is expensive."
The most difficult time is at night, when a bedroom can feel like a sauna. Many families still sleep on their roofs despite the roar of passing helicopters and the risk of stray bullets. The helicopters fly so low that men in this rumor-prone city began instructing their wives and daughters to cover up in long sleeves and tracksuits for fear that the American pilots were peeking at their women.
