The growing impact of tanking oil prices is having an increasingly visible effect on Iraq. Both the Federal Government in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are struggling to make ends meet.
In Baghdad the lack of money is having a considerable impact. While state employees still receive salaries, public services are suffering due to contract workers being laid off. Electricity provision in particular, which had been improving, has slid backwards. On 27 January Alsumaria TV broadcast complaints from Karbala residents over the failure of the 2012 Jamaliya electricity project. Supposed to provide 300MW, output was just 70MW, leaving Karbala residents in the dark. The purported reason? Lack of money to pay the power station’s bills. (CONTINUED - 1223 WORDS)
