Oh, snap, your phone is out of charge because the power is out and now you're late to work for the fifth time because the alarm didn’t ring? Electricity and our reliance on it have become so integrated into our lives that our daily tasks revolve around it. Having access to electricity has become as important as having food and water. With the push of a single power button, we can turn on an infrared heater to meet our needs for warmth in winter.

Yet, despite such advances, why do some nations, such as Iraq, continue to face challenges due to an underdeveloped electricity sector? Iraq faces a constant lack of electricity, especially noticeable during the summer months when temperatures reach over 50 degrees celsius.

Kurdistan continues to make endeavors in electrical energy improvement. On Sunday, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), Masrour Barzani, declared at a meeting with the Minister for Electricity, that Kurdistan’s electric industry needs to be strengthened further to provide Kurdistan with twenty-four-hour electricity, including by renewable means. According to official figures, the total electricity demand in the KRI in 2004 was 829 Megawatt (MW), increasing drastically from 2008-2009, and ultimately reached 2700 MW in 2012. In 2018, the region's demand exceeded 3000 MW. As a means of mitigating the demand, the Kurdistan region is implementing solar power projects, an electricity source that is more eco-friendly and sustainable. In Kurdistan, becoming green is relatively recent with Kurdistan’s first pilot solar energy project launched in 2021.

By:  Baniz Wasman

Southern Iraq’s marshlands were made a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2016 for their biodiversity and ancient history. The once verdant wetland is now reduced to puddles of muddy water surrounded by largely dry ground. This meeting place of the great Tigris and Euphrates Rivers was once home to herds of buffaloes and shoals of fish. Now, it is a graveyard of animals that once were the life of the land.

Between August 2020 and August 2022, 46 percent of the swamplands of southern Iraq, including Huwaizah and Chibayish, suffered a total surface water loss, according to Dutch peace-building organization PAX. Another 41 percent of marsh areas suffered from reduced water levels and wetness, according to the organization, which used satellite data to make the assessment. The area’s biodiversity is at risk, as the swamplands provide a home for “numerous populations of threatened species” and are an essential stopping point for around two hundred species of migratory water birds, according to UNESCO.

Protests are ongoing throughout August, with protestors demanding water provision and an end to the humanitarian crisis in the marshes, many of whom were taken to hospital after brutal and excessive violence.