Kirkuk villagers struggle with lack of national power

PRDE, Iraq — Villagers in the disputed areas of Kirkuk are struggling with a lack of national power.

Khurshid Ramazan is a farmer in the village of Galloz in Kirkuk’s Prde (Altun Kupri) subdistrict. He has frequent cuts to the nationally-supplied electricity. Only with the help of pricey, private generators, can he water his fields.

“We don’t have electricity for six hours, then it’s back for two hours. It cuts six to seven times in those two hours,” said Ramzan.

Kirkuk overall is facing decreases to an already-low supply of national power. The province receives only 500 megawatts of electricity per day, when it used to have 800 megawatts.

However, disputed areas, home to many Kurds, not only suffer from a lack of electricity,
but also lack distribution stations in the areas.

“The people of Altun Kupri, Dibis, Sargaran and Daraman are all struggling with a lack of national power cuts and low voltages. We have started our calls [to authorities],” Laith Talaat, the head of the Kirkuk power distribution department, told Rudaw. “Thankfully, the company and ministry of electricity will send us a mobile distribution station from Samarra to Dibis. This will resolve the issue of power cuts and low voltage in Altun Kupri.”

Residents have raised complaints to the Ministry of Electricity to resolve the issues.

“We met with the minister of electricity. I submitted an official request to resolve this issue. We have been waiting for the budget bill. It has now been passed. They can resolve this issue in Prde, Sargaran and Dibis with this budget,” Rebwar Taha, a member of the oil and energy committee in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw.

Due to the lack of national power in Kirkuk, like much of Iraq, generators are used as alternatives by residents. However, the price of amperes has recently increased.

Translation and video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed