BASRA, Iraq, June 21, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Umm Mohammed, 74, waves a fan back and
forth to cool down, but in the blistering heat of Iraq's southern city of
Basra there is nothing but stiflingly hot air.

While Basra is used to scorching summers, this year it has started sooner
than expected, bringing misery to residents in a city also plagued by chronic
electricity shortages.

"By God, we are tired," Umm Mohammed said faintly, adding that the heat had
woken her up in the middle of the night.

Just days into summer, the temperature in Basra has already soared to around
45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit).

Umm Mohammed's modest home has a flimsy sheet-metal roof that retains the
sweltering heat.

Further north in the capital Baghdad, temperatures have already topped 50
Celsius -- in the shade.

Battered by decades of conflict that has sapped its infrastructure, Iraq is
struggling with droughts, repeated sandstorms, desertification and a drop in
some river levels.

Chronic power cuts are exacerbated in the summer, and only those who can
afford private generators are able to keep their fridges or air conditioning
units running.

In Basra, high humidity compounds the oppressive heat.

And with many Iraqis struggling to survive, spending around $105 dollars a
month for a private generator is not an option.

The authorities "must help poor people", Umm Mohammed said, decrying their
failure to provide an adequate mains supply.

Referring to how the government treats its citizens, she said: "Even God does
not agree to that."

- 'It's hell' -

Iraq is the second-largest oil producer in the OPEC cartel.

But the once thriving country has for years bought gas from neighbouring
Iran, which supplies about one-third of its power sector needs.

US sanctions on Iranian oil and gas have complicated Baghdad's payments for
the imports, leaving Iraq in heavy arrears and prompting Tehran to
periodically switch off the taps.

The result is longer power cuts for most of Iraq's 41-million-strong
population, many of whom blame politicians and endemic corruption for their
plight.

Anger over blackouts helped fuel deadly protests from late 2019 to mid-2020,
including many in southern Iraq.

Nataq al-Khafaji, who lives in Nasiriyah, just north of Basra, said getting
by in the heat without electricity was "very difficult for the children and
the elderly".

"It's hell," he added.

During the summer holidays, Khafaji's three children have nowhere to go and
little to do.

Stuck in their darkened home, they try as best as they can to escape the
suffocating heat outdoors.

Khafaji has bought a battery-operated fan, but expressed worry that it would
not be enough during the worst months "when it will be close to 50 degrees".

- 'National priority' -

The United Nations ranks Iraq as one of the top five countries most
vulnerable to climate change.

Since mid-April, it has been battered by 10 sandstorms -- a product of
intense drought, soil degradation, high temperatures and low rainfall linked
to climate change.

President Barham Saleh has warned that tackling climate change "must become a
national priority for Iraq as it is an existential threat to the future of
our generations to come".

Saleh said desertification affects 39 percent of Iraq, where water supplies
are also dwindling drastically and crop yields are declining.

With heat waves and dust storms "expected to increase over the years", so
will health issues, said Seif al-Badr, a spokesman for the health ministry.

"We expect to be treating more people for a variety of illnesses linked to
climate" change, he told AFP.

But efforts to address such issues appear to have been shelved, as Iraq
grapples with political deadlock that has left it without a new government
after polls last October.

The World Bank has warned that unless solutions are found, Iraq could lose 20
percent of its water resources by 2050 due to climate change.