Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared a four-day weekend to keep people out of the sun, but he did not stop there. He also called in the electricity minister for emergency consultations, and ordered an end to one of the most coveted perks of government officials: round-the-clock power for their air conditioners.
Now, the scheduled daily power cuts that other Iraqis have long endured are to be imposed on government offices and officials' homes.
That may not be enough for Iraqis, whose oil-rich country has not supplied reliable electricity since the U.S. invasion in 2003 in Baghdad - and in many provinces, far longer. One of the country's largest recent grass-roots protests shut down traffic in Baghdad on Friday night, and more protests took place Saturday in southern Iraq.
Several thousand people demonstrated Friday evening in Tahrir Square in the center of Baghdad, chanting and carrying signs about the lack of electricity and blaming corruption for it. They blocked traffic at a major roundabout, waiting until sundown to avoid the heat.
Within hours, al-Abadi praised the protesters for standing up for their rights, and called in the electricity minister. The minister told Parliament last week that the electricity grid would crank up to 11,000 megawatts, barely half the summer's peak demand of 22,000 megawatts. Normal capacity is closer to 8,500 megawatts.
Iraqis have been complaining about electricity at least since the United States toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. In the resulting security vacuum, widespread looting, which U.S. troops had no orders to prevent, dismantled much of what had been left of the electricity grid, already eroded by years of sanctions and war.
"Maku kahraba! Maku amn!" were the complaints leveled by pretty much all Iraqis to any American they came across back in those first days of the U.S. occupation. "There is no electricity. There is no security." In that order.
© 2015, The New York Times News Service
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