Power grid shuts down as Iraq pushes 50C in crippling heatwave

A gigantic power grid has been fried by extreme temperatures exceeding 50C, in a heatwave forcing authorities to step in as millions swelter.

Children stand on a boat lying on the dried-up bed of Iraq's receding southern marshes of Chibayish in Dhi Qar province, on July 24, 2022. (Photo by Asaad NIAZI / AFP)

Iraq’s power grid has been fried by extreme temperatures exceeding 51C, in a heatwave that’s forced authorities to step in as millions swelter.

Millions were left without power on Saturday as the electricity grid failed in the southern provinces of Basra, Dhi Qar and Maysan.

Reports of mass food spoilage and illness have forced authorities to take measures to keep the population safe due to the “noticeable rise in temperatures”.

Local reports say residents were battling the heat by driving around their city for the sole purpose of using the air conditioner.

On Sunday morning, the governor of Dhi Qar province announced a public holiday for state employees would be extended until the religious festival of Muharram begins on Tuesday.

The Middle Eastern nation ranks fifth on the global list of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change — and it is now facing faster-rising temperatures than most.

The dire scene has seen southern marshes in the southern in Dhi Qar province dry up at a much faster rate, lining cracks for miles on end.

Weather forecasts indicated most of Iraq would experience temperatures of around 45C or higher this week, but the sudden spike has caught even the most experienced by surprise.

The electricity grid is not the only public service in trouble, with hospitals also under strain as they battle an influx of heatstroke cases.

Iraq’s power grid has been fried by extreme temperatures exceeding 51C, in a heatwave forcing authorities to step in as millions swelter.

The rapid change has seen southern marshes in the southern in Dhi Qar province dry up, lining cracks for miles on end.

Heatwaves have also crippled Europe this summer, bringing a number of nations to a halt.

Faced with a historic drought and threatened by desertification, Spain is now rethinking how it spends its water resources, which are used mainly to irrigate crops.

“We must be extremely careful and responsible instead of looking the other way,” Spain’s Minister for the Ecological Transition Teresa Ribera said recently, about the impact of the lack of rain.

Like France and Italy, Spain has been gripped by several extreme heatwaves this summer after an unusually dry winter.

That has left the country’s reservoirs at 40.4 per cent of their capacity in August, 20 percentage points below the average over the last decade for this time of the year.

Religious events are still taking place under the searing heat.

Waters have been receding in Iraq due to a mix of factors including lower rainfall, severe drought, and diversion of inflowing rivers from Iran.

Officials have responded by limiting water use, especially in the southern region of Andalusia, which grows much of Europe’s fruits and vegetables.

Reservoir water levels in the region are particularly low, just 25 per cent at most of their capacity.

“The situation is dramatic,” said University of Jaen hydrology professor Rosario Jimenez, adding both underground aquifers and surface bodies of water were running low.

The situation is especially worrying since it is part of a long-term trend linked to climate change, she added.

Parts of Spain are the driest they have been in a thousand years due to an atmospheric high-pressure system driven by climate change, according to a study published last month in the journal, Nature Geoscience.

Greenpeace estimates that 75 per cent of the country is susceptible to desertification.

Spain has built a vast network of dams to provide water for its farms and towns. During the 20th century, 1,200 large dams were built in the country, the highest number in Europe per capita.

In England, temperatures this summer spiked beyond 40C for the first time ever.

The country’s hottest temperature ever measured was previously 38.7C at the Cambridge Botanic Garden in 2019.

The Government feared the “unprecedented heatwave” could have sparked a series riots and a meltdown of emergency services as millions sat in unprecedented heat.

Global health officials fear that “hundreds or thousands” of people could die as a result of the extreme temperatures — with the conditions likened to a 2003 heatwave in France in which 14,000 mostly elderly people died — prompting the government to trigger the first ever national emergency heat red alert.