Power Failures Across Middle East W. Temps In Low 120s; Corruption, Drought, Infrastructure Decay
Record heat waves and crippling energy shortages across much of the Middle East are plunging homes and businesses from Lebanon to Iran into darkness and stirring unrest as poor families swelter while many of the rich stay cool with backup generators. Power outages have pushed hospitals to a crisis point. Family businesses are struggling to survive. In some cities, the streetlights barely work. Temperatures in several Middle Eastern countries this summer have topped 122 degrees Fahrenheit — 50 degrees Celsius — including in Iran, which hit 123.8, and Iraq, which nearly matched last year’s record of 125.2. Decades of neglect and underinvestment have left power grids unable to cope. Drought has crippled hydroelectric generation. Economic crises roiling several countries mean governments are now even struggling to purchase the fuel needed to generate power.
“It’s aggravated by climate change and increasing temperatures, but the roots of this are poor planning, weak governance and low investment in the power sector,” said Jessica Obeid, a nonresident scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute. In Iran, the outages have sparked protests in several cities and prompted a rare apology this month from outgoing President Hassan Rouhani. As anger spreads, demonstrations have also erupted over water shortages in Khuzestan, a province in southwestern Iran. Amnesty International said in a report released Friday that security forces had responded to the protests with live ammunition and killed at least eight protesters and bystanders.
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In Lebanon, people have long been accustomed to daily three-hour electricity cuts — the country has not had a 24-hour supply since the civil war ended in 1990 — and there was even a phone app notifying residents when the cuts would take place. But Lebanon’s dramatic economic collapse in recent months has left the government without enough fuel to provide electricity for most of the day. Now the entire country runs on generators, and the state-run electricity company’s website, which used to show tallies of electricity hours, is down.
Power shortages have also hit cities across Iraq after it fell behind on payments to neighboring Iran for the large quantity of cross-border electricity it traditionally provided, causing Iran to cut off the supply. A review by the Associated Press in June showed that the amount of electricity flowing from four lines that cross from Iran into Iraq had dropped to zero, at least temporarily. In Baghdad, business owners said outages are prompting long nights of desperation as they stay up finding ways to reconfigure their budgets to pay for enough generator power to keep the electricity flowing. Prices vary, but businesses can pay thousands of dollars to keep the lights on. “If the power goes out, we lose everything, so we have to keep these lights on,” said Abdulkarim al-Zoubi, standing in his family-run juice shop. “The fruits would go rotten, people would get sick.” His shoulders sank as he leaned across the counter. “Without electricity, this place dies.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/middle-east-electricity-crisis/2021/07/23/d4dfd9f4-de74-11eb-a27f-8b294930e95b_story.html
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A man connects overhead cables providing generator electricity to homes and businesses that can afford it in Sadr City, east of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images)
