IRAQ: Population still affected by severe power cuts

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BAGHDAD, 30 August (IRIN) - Iraqis are still suffering from power shortages countrywide – receiving less than four hours of electricity daily – despite the government's recent announcement that more money would be spent on this sector.

"The government has forgotten about essential services like water and power," said Farah Mustany, a mother of four in Baghdad. "We are thirsty for power because we are suffering and our children were suffering as we don't have basic facilities."

This summer has been the worse since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003. Shortages in power supplies have resulted in millions of residents being forced to sleep outside because there is not enough power to run air conditioners.

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Doctors in the Iraqi capital have complained of the increase in cases of dehydration and diarrhoea among children and the elderly, caused by the constant heat inside homes without cooling systems.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/75cf4d834748868e197f8e04d1d68773.htm

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1. I would be willing to bet that there is plenty of power to those

fourteen military installations being build and the Green Zone.