Summer, electricity stimulate power generators sale in Wassit
WASSIT / IraqiNews.com: The summer heat and the increase in the frequency in power cuts are the main reason for the Iraqi’s tendency to buy generators or fix the old ones in the recent years. Citizen Eissa al-Safi from the city of Kut did not know that the generator he bought to light-up his store and to enjoy some fresh cold air from the air conditioner will cost him half of the generator’s cost just to fix it after turning it on for 30 minutes. “I bought a generator with 300,000 Iraqi dinars to light the store and operate the air conditioning unit, but turning it on for 30 minutes damaged it and cost me 150,000 Iraqi dinars to fix,” al-Safi told IraqiNews.com news agency. “I appeal to the official in the Trade Ministry not to allow the traders to import the bad generators because we suffered from cheating in all material imported by the Ministry during the war,” he added. “We urge the Ministry to help us if the Electricity Ministry, backed by the Oil Ministry, is unable to help us in improving our lives,” he also said. For his part, Ali al-Shemri, an owner of a store to sell and fix generators, told IraqiNews.com news agency that “I was selling the agricultural machines but the huge increase in the demand on generators forced me to change my trade to sell and fix generators, and thank God my income increased.” “Our total sales reach five generators everyday, and we receive between 10-15 generators a day that need to be fixed,” he added. “Sometimes we receive big generators which cause crowds in the street as our workshops cannot contain them, but we have to receive them because fixing them provides a larger profit,” his neighbor Haydar Macki said. A Shiite province, Wassit, 180 km south of Baghdad, is in the east of the country. Its name comes from the Arabic word meaning “middle,” as it lies along the Tigris about midway between Baghdad and Basra. Its major cities include the capital, al-Kut, and al-Hayy. Prior to 1976 it was known as Kut Province. SH (S)/SR 1