The blame game is Iraq’s solution to the electricity disaster |

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BAGHDAD Faced with the collapse of the electricity system, with the total power cut on Friday in many governorates except the Kurdistan region, Iraqi officials have found no better solution than to look for scapegoats to blame for the national disaster.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi ordered the dismissal of the general manager of the Upper and Middle Euphrates General Electricity Transmission Company, while other politicians blamed the electricity workers for the crisis. The Minister of Electricity, Majed Mahdi Hantoosh, had already resigned at the end of June.

As temperatures soared to 52 degrees Celsius, authorities resorted to simplistic technical explanations to justify frequent power interruptions, or blamed it all on the financial crisis that prevented the government from repaying its debt to the government. Iran, which continues to exercise control over this vital element. a service.

Iraq’s chronic electricity crisis and the inability of successive governments for more than a decade and a half to overcome it, while the country is one of the world’s largest oil producers and exporters, illustrated the failure of the ‘State to manage the country’s resources due to widespread institutional corruption.

Some analysts say that one of the obstacles to overcoming the electricity crisis is the existence of a vast network of companies that thrive on the sale of electricity generators. Profiteers have no interest in a functioning electricity grid and go so far as to pressure parliamentarians and government officials to prevent any permanent solution.

A parliamentary inquiry late last year accused successive governments controlled by Islamist parties of squandering funds allocated to solving the electricity problem. The survey found that between 2005 and 2019, Iraq spent as much as $ 80 billion in the electricity sector, without making any progress.

Among the forms of corruption evoked by the survey is the decision of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (2006-2014) to build gas-fired power plants that the country fundamentally lacks, simply because contractors were offering commissions. important. The contractors worked for companies linked to Iran, forcing Iraq to pay millions of US dollars each year to Tehran to supply the country with the gas it needed to run these stations.

Baghdad owes Iran $ 6 billion for imported electricity and gas. The current crisis was sparked by Iran’s suspension of gas exports that Iraq relies on to run its power plants.

Analysts say Tehran is using the electricity issue as one of the many cards it is wielding in its quest to secure dominance over Iraqi decision-making and prevent any new prime minister from seeking alternative deals with others. countries, like Saudi Arabia.

In addition, authorities find it difficult to collect electricity bills. Only a very small number of Iraqis pay such bills. Abuse in most of the country’s cities by ordinary consumers and even government officials leads to further loss of income.

With each summer, Iraqi officials begin to seek temporary solutions to the looming power crisis, even though the government is believed to have prepared a strategic plan based on mobilizing the country’s own resources and diversifying sources of imports so that the ‘Iraq is not being held hostage to Iranian whims.

On Friday, the Prime Minister announced that many decisions had been taken, which he described as important in dealing with the current crisis. The most important of these, he explained, is the establishment of a crisis task force to deal with the shortage of electricity supply in Baghdad and in the provinces, in an approach that seemed to be aimed only at trying to defuse popular anger.

Member of the Parliamentary Energy Committee Zahra Al-Bajari attributes the electricity problem to a combination of factors, including dependence on gas imported from Iran, lack of maintenance of refineries , vandalism of electricity pylons and insufficient investment in national resources.

Bajari criticized the electricity ministry for not having developed a real strategic plan to boost energy supply, as well as the general lack of coordination and cooperation between the electricity and petroleum ministries on energy supply. fuel for power plants.

MP Raad al-Dahlaki called on the government and the House of Representatives to form a joint crisis task force to address the issue of electricity from a security, economic and political perspective.

Iraq needs 22,000 megawatts, but its actual output is only 17,000 megawatts.

While Iraqis’ electricity needs are necessarily high due to the use of air conditioners, the per capita share of electricity is actually the lowest in the Middle East.

The Iraqi electricity ministry announced earlier in the year its intention to reach a production level of 19,000 megawatts by this summer. As might be expected, this target was not met.

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