ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Protests broke out over the deteriorating electricity situation in Wasit's provincial capital, Kut, on Friday, leading to clashes with security forces. Over 50 people were injured in the confrontation, a health official said on Saturday.
Residents of Kut have been protesting the lack of public electricity in recent weeks, demanding an increase in power hours. The government has responded harshly, resulting in casualties and arrests.
Ali Mohammed, director of the media department for Wasit, told Rudaw's Nahro Mohammed on Saturday that the renewed demonstrations on Friday, which resulted in fierce clashes between the protesters and security forces, led to 51 injuries — most of them security personnel.
Authorities have not recorded the exact number of injuries among the protesters, as many did not seek treatment in hospitals, Mohammed added.
According to video footage circulated on social media, tension and clashes broke out between protesters and security forces when the latter tried to disperse the crowd using water cannons and tear gas.
Wasit activists believe they are being treated unjustly, since the Zubaidiya power station — one of the largest electricity-generating stations in Iraq — is located within their province, yet the province receives very few hours of electricity, with most of the station's output going into the national grid for other Iraqi provinces.
"Because of the worsening electricity situation, protests have been underway in the city of Kut for several days now, and tensions have risen," Hussein Jabbar, one of the activists in Wasit province, told Rudaw.
"Wasit province generates 2,500 megawatts of electricity through the Zubaidiya station, yet right now we only get one hour of national grid electricity, whereas before we used to get two to three hours," he added.
The protesters are demanding a fair and stable share of the electricity generated within their province's borders, especially given the sharp rise in temperatures. They are also calling for the removal of certain officials in the province's electricity distribution sector from their posts.
Protesters have repeatedly closed the main road between Kut and Baghdad, as well as other roads, by burning tires. The protests have reached the provincial government building and the electricity distribution offices, and clashes between security forces and protesters have occurred in some locations.
Haider Ali Faili, a member of the Iraqi parliament, believes a party is behind the protests, without naming it.
"Part of the protests are about demanding services, with the electricity file being the top issue, but part of them are being encouraged by a political party within the province," he told Rudaw.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights called on Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi late last month to stop an arrest campaign targeting protesters in Wasit, warning that the operations echoed the violations of Iraq's 2019 protest crackdown.
