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| Photo Credit: AP. |
BEIRUT (AP) — They literally run the country. In parking lots, on flatbed trucks, hospital courtyards and rooftops, private generators are ubiquitous in parts of the Middle East, spewing hazardous fumes into homes and businesses 24 hours a day.
As the world
looks for renewable energy to tackle climate change, millions of people around
the region depend almost completely on diesel-powered private generators to
keep the lights on because war or mismanagement have gutted electricity
infrastructure.
Experts call
it national suicide from an environmental and health perspective.
“Air
pollution from diesel generators contains more than 40 toxic air contaminants,
including many known or suspected cancer-causing substances,” said Samy Kayed,
managing director and co-founder of the Environment Academy at the American
University of Beirut in Lebanon.
Greater
exposure to these pollutants likely increases respiratory illnesses and
cardiovascular disease, he said. It also causes acid rain that harms plant
growth and increases eutrophication — the excess build-up of nutrients in water
that ultimately kills aquatic plants.
Since they
usually use diesel, generators also produce far more climate change-inducing
emissions than, for example, a natural gas power plant does, he said.
The
pollutants caused by massive generators add to the many environmental woes of
the Middle East, which is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to
the impact of climate change. The region already has high temperatures and
limited water resources even without the growing impact of global warming.
The reliance
on generators results from state failure. In Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and
elsewhere, governments can’t maintain a functioning central power network,
whether because of war, conflict or mismanagement and corruption.
Lebanon, for
example, has not built a new power plant in decades. Multiple plans for new
ones have run aground on politicians’ factionalism and conflicting patronage
interests. The country’s few aging, heavy-fuel oil plants long ago became
unable to meet demand.
Iraq,
meanwhile, sits on some of the world’s biggest oil reserves. Yet scorching
summer-time heat is always accompanied by the roar of neighborhood generators,
as residents blast ACs around the clock to keep cool.
Repeated
wars over the decades have wrecked Iraq’s electricity networks. Corruption has
siphoned away billions of dollars meant to repair and upgrade it. Some 17
billion cubic meters of gas from Iraq’s wells are burned every year as waste,
because it hasn’t built the infrastructure to capture it and convert it to electricity
to power Iraqi homes.
In Libya, a
country prized for its light and sweet crude oil, electricity networks have
buckled under years of civil war and the lack of a central government.
“The power
cuts last the greater part of the day, when electricity is mostly needed,” said
Muataz Shobaik, the owner of a butcher shop in the city of Benghazi, in Libya’s
east, who uses a noisy generator to keep his coolers running.
“Every
business has to have a backup off-grid solution now,” he said. Diesel fumes
from his and neighboring shops’ machines hung thick in the air amid the
oppressive heat.
The Gaza
Strip’s 2.3 million people rely on around 700 neighborhood generators across the
territory for their homes. Thousands of private generators keep businesses,
government institutions, universities and health centers running. Running on
diesel, they churn black smoke in the air, tarring walls around them.
Since Israel
bombed the only power plant in the Hamas-ruled territory in 2014, the station
has never reached full capacity. Gaza only gets about half the power it needs
from the plant and directly from Israel. Cutoffs can last up to 16 hours a day.
WAY OF LIFE
Perhaps
nowhere do generators rule people’s lives as much as in Lebanon, where the
system is so entrenched and institutionalized that private generator owners
have their own business association.
They are
crammed into tight streets, parking lots, on roofs and balconies and in
garages. Some are as large as storage containers, others small and blaring
noise.
Lebanon’s 5
million people have long depended on them. The word “moteur,” French for
generator, is one of the most often spoken words among Lebanese.
Reliance has
only increased since Lebanon’s economy unraveled in late 2019 and central power
cutoffs began lasting longer. At the same time, generator owners have had to
ration use because of soaring diesel prices and high temperatures, turning them
off several times a day for breaks.
So residents
plan their lives around the gaps in electricity. Those who can’t start the day
without coffee set an alarm to make a cup before the generator turns off. The
frail or elderly in apartment towers wait for the generator to switch on before
leaving home so they don’t have to climb stairs. Hospitals must keep generators
humming so life-saving machines can operate without disruption.
“We
understand people’s frustration, but if it wasn’t for us, people would be
living in darkness,” said Ihab, the Egyptian operator of a generator station
north of Beirut.
“They say we
are more powerful than the state, but it is the absence of the state that led
us to exist,” he said, giving only his first name to avoid trouble with the
authorities.
Siham Hanna,
a 58-year-old translator in Beirut, said generator fumes exacerbate her elderly
father’s lung condition. She wipes soot off her balcony and other surfaces
several times a day.
“It’s the
21st century, but we live like in the stone ages. Who lives like this?” said
Hanna, who does not recall her country ever having stable electricity in her
life.
Some in
Lebanon and elsewhere have begun to install solar power systems in their homes.
But most use it only to fill in when the generator is off. Cost and space
issues in urban areas have also limited solar use.
In Iraq, the
typical middle-income household uses generator power for 10 hours a day on
average and pays $240 per Megawatt/hour, among the highest rates in the region,
according to a report by the International Energy Agency.
The need for
generators has become engrained in people’s minds. At a recent concert in the
capital, famed singer Umm Ali al-Malla made sure to thank not only the audience
but also the venue’s technical director “for keeping the generator going” while
her admirers danced.
As opposed
to power plants outside urban areas, generators are in the heart of
neighborhoods, pumping toxins directly to residents.
This is
catastrophic, said Najat Saliba, a chemist at the American University of Beirut
who recently won a seat in Parliament.
“This is
extremely taxing on the environment, especially the amount of black carbon and
particles that they emit,” she said. There are almost no regulations and no filtering
of particles, she added.
Researchers
at AUB found that the level of toxic emissions may have quadrupled since
Lebanon’s financial crisis began because of increased reliance on generators.
In Iraq’s
northern city of Mosul, miles of wires crisscross streets connecting thousands
of private generators. Each produces 600 kilograms of carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases per 8 hours working time, according to Mohammed al Hazem, an
environmental activist.
Similarly, a
2020 study on the environmental impact of using large generators in the University
of Technology in Baghdad found very high concentrations of pollutants exceeding
limits set by the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency and the World
Health Organization.
That was
particularly because Iraqi diesel fuel has a high sulphur content — “one of the
worst in the world,” the study said. The emissions include “sulphate, nitrate
materials, atoms of soot carbon, ash” and pollutants that are considered
carcinogens, it warned.
“The
pollutants emitted from these generators exert a remarkable impact on the
overall health of students and university staff, it said.
Associated
Press writers Samya Kullab in Baghdad, Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Salar Salim
in Erbil, Iraq, Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza and Rami Musa in Benghazi, Libya
contributed reporting.