ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – At least six people have been arrested in Erbil as part of a province-wide crackdown on electricity theft, according to Erbil governor Firsat Sofi. Briefing reporters on Wednesday about their ongoing raids, which includes farms and villas on the Erbil-Pirman road, Sofi announced that they have so far arrested and charged "six or seven persons [...] with stealing electricity" in Erbil province. "The process has so far been very successful," Sofi said. "This [...] is not an effort to seek revenge on any specific individual or group, but to work to improve the state of electricity in our country, as it is the largest problem haunting us." He stated that every single household, hotel, farm and public place, as well as business and industrial area in the province would be checked. The governor said the campaign has already been completed in some of the city’s more affluent neighborhoods, including Waziran, Amin Amakan and Dolarawa. "The campaign also includes Erbil's outlying neighborhoods, districts and sub-districts such as Rawanduz, Soran, Choman, Koya, and Khabat, as well as the Erbil plains," he added. More than 500 sites have been raided to date, with over a quarter found to have flouted the law. "Of the 506 places that we have raided so far as part of the campaign, we have found that 158 of them had tampered with the national electricity grid and we cut them all off," Sofi said. "We are taking the crackdown on those siphoning off electricity very seriously. Therefore, we are calling on people to end this practice before have to interfere." Iraq and the Kurdistan Region suffers from chronic electricity shortages and dilapidated infrastructure. The failure of successive Iraqi and Kurdish governments to alleviate the chronic shortages since the 2003 war has been a near constant source of public anger. In response to the theft and excessive consumption that exacerbates shortages, the KRG introduced new electric meters back in 2018. However, it failed to enforce their installation or monitor their usage, with residents finding ways to manipulate the devices. In November 2019, the governor announced a one-month amnesty window in which residents who had yet to install meters could do so without punishment. Those who failed to install the meters in the time given were to face “legal measures” including fines, arrest, or utility cuts.
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