Saturday, a fire in a power station caused a massive power outage in Iraq for several hours. A recurring phenomenon but which gets worse every summer.
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With our correspondent in Erbil, Marion Fontenille
A Saturday in hell for the Iraqis. Deprived of electricity, and therefore of air conditioning, for many hours in the middle of the day, with temperatures approaching 50 degrees in certain cities of the country such as Baghdad or Basra.
It was a fire in the Basra province transmission station that caused the power cut. ” All of Iraq shut down “, Could we read in the press release from the Ministry of Electricity promising a return to normal in the coming hours and the formation of a commission of inquiry to identify the causes of the accident.
They could be multiple: failing infrastructure and public services, endemic corruption or even terrorist attacks against electricity networks.
The electricity file is extremely sensitive in the country. Iraq does not produce enough megawatts to meet the needs of its population. The government therefore finds itself under pressure from the street – because not all Iraqis can afford a generator – and at the mercy of Iran, the main gas supplier, which has halved its supplies ten days ago because of outstanding payments of more than eleven billion euros.