Residents in Dhi Qar set up tents to protest power cuts

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Hundreds of residents in the Ameyre area of Fuwat district in Dhi Qar province have set up tents and launched a sit-in to protest worsening electricity outages, according to a Shafaq News reporter on Sunday. Demonstrators said the area receives only two to four hours of power per day and demanded the dismissal of Mohammed Faisal Ruwayyidi, director of the Dhi Qar electricity branch. The Iraqi Ministry of Electricity said on Thursday that supply hours across the national grid had improved relatively after an increase in gas imports from Iran and the resumption of gas shipments from fields in the Kurdistan Region. Electricity Minister Ali Saadi Wahib told a parliamentary session on Saturday that completing interconnection projects with neighboring countries and reducing losses in the grid would raise both generation capacity and supply hours. The ministry has attributed the longer outages to a drop in gas supply and unauthorized tampering with the network. Power shortages have deepened across Iraq as temperatures rise during the summer months.