Iraqis bemoan lack of services in hot summer

By Mussab Al-Khairalla

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi schoolboy Sarmad Qais sleeps on the roof of his Baghdad home, desperate to escape the stifling heat inside. His family say they have not had electricity for 20 days. Their air-conditioners lie idle.

Qais does not bother to set his alarm clock to wake up for school -- the sound of mortars after dawn are usually enough.

"Having no power and water really annoys me," said 9-year-old Sarmad, speaking outside his home in central Baghdad's Karrada neighbourhood, which like almost all Iraqi houses has a flat roof reached by stairs inside.

"I can't shower, I can't watch cartoons and I can't sleep because of the heat and mosquitoes. I wake up most mornings to the sound of explosions and mortars."

Many Iraqis say basic services are at their worst level in decades. More than four years of war has crippled infrastructure while unrelenting violence has hobbled reconstruction efforts.

To make matters worse, summer temperatures can remain above 40 degrees centigrade (104 degrees Fahrenheit) even at night.

Some residents say they get electricity in Baghdad and other provinces for around two hours a day, while water supplies are often cut for days at a time. Motorists sometimes queue for half a day to get petrol.

Taxi driver Mustafa al-Zubaidi said he had spent nine hours moving his car several hundred meters in a slow-moving queue in Baghdad's baking heat to get a tank of petrol.