Irak: Extreme Hitze ohne Strom

Schon jetzt, Anfang Juki, steigen die Temperaturen im Süden des Irak auf über 50 Grad Celsius und wie jedes Jahr folgen Stromausfälle, das das überlastete Netzt nicht in der Lage ist, den Bedarf an Kühlgeräten zu decken. Die Konsequenzen für die Menschen sind katastrophal:

“The children sleep right on the floor to try and stay cool, but us, the adults, haven’t slept a wink these past nights,” Meshaal Hashem, a Basra docker and father of three, told AFP. (...)

Anger has mounted among Iraq’s 40-million population, with corrupt politicians at the center of a blame game for its poor services and dilapidated infrastructure.

“The electricity ministry is blaming the oil ministry which is blaming the finance ministry, and the finance ministry says the culprit is Iran, but Iran says it’s the Iraqi government’s fault, and the government lays the blame on the people who accuse politicians of shortcomings,” Iraqi political analyst Sajad Jiyad tweeted.

“The politicians just shrug and say, ‘We’ve got to live with it.'”

Boiling temperatures and power outages often go hand in hand during the summer months in Iraq, but there are other factors behind the latest crisis (...)

Endemic corruption was a key driver of protests that shook Iraq from October 2019 to June 2020.

Iraq is ranked 21st from last on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, with tens of billions of dollars missing from state coffers.

The latest power outages have sparked protests and clashes with police in the southern provinces of Missan and Wasit, leaving 12 people wounded, seven of them policemen.