.Iraq in budget battle to restore electricity
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq has won the battle to protect its battered electricity sector from insurgents but now faces a fight to fund its way to 24-hour coverage, Electricity Minister Karim Wahid said on Sunday.
"The minister of electricity urges everyone to help him with the budget for the new allocation for loans (to his sector) in order to rebuild Iraq," Wahid told AFP in an interview.
"Now we don't have any excuse for security," after the electricity system, already devastated by more than two decades of wars and sanctions, was the target of insurgents following the US-led invasion of March 2003.
He said the sector had not been attacked since last June and that the 18,000 kilometres (11,000 miles) of power lines around the oil-rich nation were being protected by the army and even aerial patrols.
But the focus was now on securing funds at a time when the 2009 budget has yet to be approved because of political feuding and amid a slump in world oil prices that has hit Iraq's predominant source of revenue.
"We are asking for seven billion dollars. We are getting one billion so far," Wahid said. "But I am hopeful."
A source of resentment among its 29-million population, post-Saddam Hussein Iraq has failed to restore full-time electricity to homes almost six years after the former president was ousted by US invading forces.
Iraq's power grid was bombed, looted and sabotaged during and after the invasion.
In Baghdad, in the wake of long unfulfilled US promises that electricity supplies will be restored, many of its six million residents rely on private generators to power their homes.
The state-run power network has been providing an intermittent service of between four and eight hours of electricity a day, depending on the area and the season.
Wahid pointed to 15,000 megawatts in total capacity of contracts signed with General Electric of the United States and the Germany company Siemens over the past two years.
If the contracts are carried out without being targeted for attack and with the necessary funding from the state budget, power supplies should be available for an average 12 hours a day for each household by June 2009, he said.
Around-the-clock power would be restored by 2011 or 2012.
Wahid said he was satisfied with the major contracts signed to date as well as with six fast-track projects, including an inter-connection with Iran and two Turkish barges due to arrive by August to feed parts of southern Iraq.
Down-payments had been made of between 10 and 20 percent for all the contracts at the end of 2008.
Wahid also invited France to help build a nuclear power plant, three decades after Paris constructed a reactor that was bombed by Israeli warplanes in 1981 during the Iran-Iraq war.
"I am willing to enter into contacts with the French nuclear agency and to start to build a nuclear power plant, because the future is nuclear," he said. "This is my perspective."
Wahid also invited French companies to invest. "We have many projects to be announced for investments," he said, singling out "power generation investment called IPP," or independent power producers.
AFP
"The minister of electricity urges everyone to help him with the budget for the new allocation for loans (to his sector) in order to rebuild Iraq," Wahid told AFP in an interview.
"Now we don't have any excuse for security," after the electricity system, already devastated by more than two decades of wars and sanctions, was the target of insurgents following the US-led invasion of March 2003.
He said the sector had not been attacked since last June and that the 18,000 kilometres (11,000 miles) of power lines around the oil-rich nation were being protected by the army and even aerial patrols.
But the focus was now on securing funds at a time when the 2009 budget has yet to be approved because of political feuding and amid a slump in world oil prices that has hit Iraq's predominant source of revenue.
"We are asking for seven billion dollars. We are getting one billion so far," Wahid said. "But I am hopeful."
A source of resentment among its 29-million population, post-Saddam Hussein Iraq has failed to restore full-time electricity to homes almost six years after the former president was ousted by US invading forces.
Iraq's power grid was bombed, looted and sabotaged during and after the invasion.
In Baghdad, in the wake of long unfulfilled US promises that electricity supplies will be restored, many of its six million residents rely on private generators to power their homes.
The state-run power network has been providing an intermittent service of between four and eight hours of electricity a day, depending on the area and the season.
Wahid pointed to 15,000 megawatts in total capacity of contracts signed with General Electric of the United States and the Germany company Siemens over the past two years.
If the contracts are carried out without being targeted for attack and with the necessary funding from the state budget, power supplies should be available for an average 12 hours a day for each household by June 2009, he said.
Around-the-clock power would be restored by 2011 or 2012.
Wahid said he was satisfied with the major contracts signed to date as well as with six fast-track projects, including an inter-connection with Iran and two Turkish barges due to arrive by August to feed parts of southern Iraq.
Down-payments had been made of between 10 and 20 percent for all the contracts at the end of 2008.
Wahid also invited France to help build a nuclear power plant, three decades after Paris constructed a reactor that was bombed by Israeli warplanes in 1981 during the Iran-Iraq war.
"I am willing to enter into contacts with the French nuclear agency and to start to build a nuclear power plant, because the future is nuclear," he said. "This is my perspective."
Wahid also invited French companies to invest. "We have many projects to be announced for investments," he said, singling out "power generation investment called IPP," or independent power producers.
AFP
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