Powerless Middle Easterners charged up over electricity cuts (Feature)

By dpa correspondents Aug 6, 2010, 3:06 GMT

Baghdad/Beirut/Cairo - Samar Hassan is fed up with the electricity shortages that plague her neighborhood in the Lebanese capital Beirut. Egyptian Samira Ahmed bemoans the dangerous illegal hookup her husband arranged inside their slum on Cairo's outskirts.

In Iraq, meanwhile, people took to the streets in massive protests against power cuts in June. One demonstrator died and several were injured when police intervened.

As the summer months heat up, so does the issue of electricity across the region. Peace, democracy and other promises of institutional change have raised people's expectations.

Economic development has also increased spending power, leading people to buy more air conditioners, refrigerators and other items that drain power. Infrastructure, however, has not kept up.

When temperatures hit 50 degrees Celsius, and smog is exacerbated by the increased number of cars on the road, the quest for a cool room and a cold soda intensifies. But for many citizens of the Middle East, just keeping the lights on at night remains a challenge.

'This is a never-ending crisis and the Lebanese are getting tired,' said Hassan, the weary housewife in Beirut.

Like others who crave electricity 24 hours a day, she has to pay two bills: one to the government electrical company and the other for a private generator.

A new government ad broadcast on Lebanese television pledges that power will 'soon' be on all day and night, as new generating stations are built at large costs. But many have ceased to believe the claims, after years of broken promises and rampant mismanagement at the electricity company.

'Twenty-four hours a day electricity in Lebanon - I will not live to see it,' scoffed Malek Radwah, a middle-aged bank clerk.

For Iraqis, years of foreign sanctions, internal mismanagement and corruption - and, of course, wars - have translated into citizens sitting most of the night in the dark. Power cuts can last up to 20 hours a day, prompting the electricity minister to resign recently amid the mass protests.

The country is stuck in a political deadlock since March elections and there are few indications that parties will imminently reach a coalition deal.

Hope is thus subsiding of a new minister coming in and sorting out the mess of wires that hangs over streets, where people siphon power illegally from almost any source.

'We are working on alternatives to secure power,' said Nasser Hussain, who works on such projects for the Iraqi government.

Ideas being considered include relying more on the private sector and making generators available to the public.

'Electricity from government-run power stations lasts only 6 hours per day,' he admitted.

While the country's problems go back as far as the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s and the enactment of sanctions in the 1990s as punishment for the invasion of Kuwait, the US-led occupation in 2003 is widely being blamed for the enduring electricity problems.

Washington's pledges of development have failed to materialize, despite the billions spent on power projects, making the US the culprit in the eyes of many.

Back in Lebanon, the country's electricity failures are blamed on several issues.

'It is not enough that we Lebanese during the civil war destroyed our own power plants. Now, every time there is a problem between Lebanon and Israel, Israel bombs what is left of our power plants,' said Sahar Madi, a Beirut resident.

The brutal civil war, from 1975 to 1990, devastated the country's infrastructure.

The slow and costly rebuilding process has been marred by a bureaucracy that many see as inept, at best, and perhaps even self- serving. Instability, such as that caused by the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafik al-Hariri and the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, adds to the troubles.

But even in countries ostensibly at peace, things can be rough. Often, the very sectors that require electricity for their growth are also the areas of the economy on which vast segments of society depend for long-term prosperity.

Tourism, for instance, brings foreign capital and large revenues into Egypt. But power outages in cities such as Aswan and Luxor near the historical Valley of the Kings - a required stop for anyone who ever dreamed of being Indiana Jones - do not help draw more visitors and shrink profits.

The government's solutions have generally focused on managing the power cuts, even as a rapidly booming Egyptian population demands more electricity and businesses need room to grow. A constant state of national emergency since 1981 and poor planning have further hampered economic activity.

While all but the most elite sections of society experience the poor, who number in the millions and live in perilous shanty towns.

'The government does not provide electricity where we live, so we have no choice - the men connect us, but it is not stable,' said Ahmed, 46, who lives in a run-down slum in Cairo.

To her, an illegal connection to a power grid is the only option.