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Minister of State for Marshes has discussed with the second deputy of Basra province the unfinished projects in Basra in 2008, a source in Basra media office said.

A source in Eye Media said" Minister of State for Marshes, Hassan al- Sari, has discussed the fate of Marshes' lingering projects in 2008 in a meeting held with 2nd deputy of Basra governor Ahmed al- Hassani. A number of service offices directors are involved ".

He added" the Minister focused on Electricity projects, Health, Water, Road and Bridges, and Education in the areas of al- Iz, Thaghr, Khessat, al- Hadama, al- Ghezale Bet Offi, al- Hewayer, al- Madenah, al- Nashua, al- Juwabr, and other villages.

The governor of Basra, Shaltagh Abboud, discussed with the director of a Turkish manufacturer of electricity pylons the necessary procedures for the arrival of power-generating pylons in the province, according to a local official source on Thursday.

“The pylons, scheduled to start to arrive in February, would be linked to the national power grid in March,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

He added that the first pylon to be received by the province is being manufactured in Istanbul while the second one will be manufactured at Singaporean ports and will arrive in March.

“The pylons will be set up at the ports of Khour al-Zubair and Umm Qasr with the objective of adding 250 megawatt to the national power capacity,” he noted.

U.S. reconstruction team has started implementing electricity projects in Basra with a total cost of $18.8 million to save energy and reduce the power cut, a general manager of Basra electricity said on Friday.

“The projects include extending 14 cables with11kV power at a cost of $5.4 million to save power through the national net,” Sabah Abdulwahed told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, noting that seven cables have been so far finalized in al-Jubiela, al-Jomhouriya, al-Janieniya, al-Maaqal, Fao, al-Sharieh and al-Arab regions.

“The main cable is being extended with a capacity of 132kV from Bab al-Zubair until the Basra electricity stations with a total cost of $8 million,” he added, noting that the project will complete next month.

“There are three projects to fix the electricity system in the southern province,” he continued, pointing out that the project costs $1.2 million.

Basra is 590 km south of Baghdad.

The U.S. reconstruction team in Basra has carried out an electricity project in the province at a total cost of $363,500 U.S. dollars, the team's head said on Sunday.

"The project included the establishment of a high and low pressure networks in al-Qibla area (western Basra)," the head of the U.S. reconstruction team in the province, John Nieland told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Work on the project, which was implemented by a local company, took nearly four months, Nieland noted.

The Shiite city of Basra lies 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

The U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team has embarked on a $24.400 million project to remove unhealthy water and build a sanitary sewage network in the southern Iraq city of Basra, the PRT chief said on Thursday.

“Two networks costing $22.200 million will be erected in the areas of al-Abbas and al-Qibla to serve about 40,000 local residents. The project is scheduled to be finalized by next July,” the PRT chief told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

“Currently the team is fixing sewage blockage and sanitary sewage pipelines all over the province,” he added.

He said that two other projects costing $1.700 million will focus on repairing the main sewage pipeline in Basra in addition to providing power generators to enhance electricity supply for the Hamdan sewage water treatment station, southern Basra.

The oil-rich port city of Basra lies 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

The provincial council in Basra has agreed with companies to build international research centers and to bring in foreign experts to train Iraqi personnel, a local official said on Sunday.

“The centers will be in the areas of planning, health, electricity and construction…,” an official from the local reconstruction committee, Mostafa Atiya, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

The council has also agreed to learn from the experience of foreign firms, which have conducted successful sewage projects in the province in the 1980s and 1990s, including Indian and Korean companies, Atiya added.

The Shiite province of Basra lies 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

( Aswat Al Iraq )

Awash with oil, Iraq is poised to ink several mega oil deals that will vault it into the top ranks of world oil producers, but the war-shattered country is back to grappling massive power shortages after a brief respite.

Peak winter consumption of electricity due to heaters being run has resulted in what appears to be a near collapse of the public power supply - those without generators to light their homes are only getting a few hours of electricity per day.

"Citizens have to reduce their consumption if they want more hours of power," Aziz Sultan, a spokesman of the Electricity Ministry, said on Thursday. "Now we are experiencing the peak electricity load of the winter season. Citizens are consuming double our electricity output."

Years of war, sanctions and underinvestment have severely degraded Iraq's power grid and plants. Intermittent electricity, especially in the searing heat of the Iraqi summer, is a source of endless anger for Iraqis who live on top of the world's third largest oil reserves.

The Electricity Ministry has often borne the brunt of complaints over shoddy public services for failing to fix the shortages almost seven years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

For a while during the fall, it seemed as if the power problems had been cured. Public electricity had been running for what seemed like most of the day and the usual steady throb of generators faded into the background as cooling demand faded.

But in the past two weeks the situation has returned to the bad old days as demand for heating surges, meaning the generators only fall silent for a few short hours per day.

That has coincided this week with Iraq's second auction of oilfield development contracts since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Ten largely untapped oilfields, including some of the world's biggest, will be offered to global oil companies on Friday and Sunday, potentially helping to catapult Iraq to third place among global oil producers from 11th now.

IRRITATING CONTRAST

For many Iraqis, the promise of so much oil wealth contrasts irritatingly with the state's failure to give them electricity.

"The power cuts are destroying us. It's more than six years after the war and it's as if we are in the first year of it," said Baghdad resident Mohammed Muhsin. "Electricity is our lifeline. Without it life becomes so difficult."

Sultan said the public power grid's capacity to produce 7,000 megawatts falls far short of demand of 12,000 megawatts. Multibillion-dollar deals for new electricity turbines from General Electric and Siemens AG capable of adding 9,000 megawatts of capacity are still in the pipeline.

He declined to say how many hours per day of electricity were being provided, but said supply had also been constrained by the need for routine maintenance before next summer on power plants.

"The people are not helping us. In winter, oil and gas are available (for heating) and they could use them, but they insist on using electricity," he said.

Sultan said the ministry planned to implement a rationing system to encourage people to conserve energy.

Any household consuming more than around $45 worth of power every two months would be cut off. They would have to pay to be reconnected.