Iraq: Baghdad struggles to cope with heat wave amid power cuts

M/S People gathered around drinks stand in Baghdad, Iraq
M/S Drinks stand
M/S Drinks stand
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W/S Drinks stand
W/S Drinks stands
W/S Drinks stand
SOT, Mohammed Darraji, Baghdad resident (Arabic): "I go about my life as best I can, but the heat is not bearable for humans or even animals."
W/S Van
M/S Water salesperson walking up to vehicles
M/S Van parked with door open
W/S Van parked with door open
W/S Sunglasses stand
M/S Man buying sunglasses
SOT, Qais Saad, Baghdad Resident (Arabic): "It's very hard to do my job in the open under the sun, the heat is really harsh, we can't bear it. We wake up at dawn and work for four hours, that’s all we can do to deal with the heat."
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SOT, Qais Saad, Baghdad Resident (Arabic): "I think there are too many reasons for this, for instance the bad management, administrative corruption, financial corruption which affects the government. We have the capacity, finances, infrastructure and human resources but corruption and bad management is preventing a solution."
M/S Baghdad traffic
W/S Mural on side of building
W/S Power lines
M/S Wires connecting buildings
W/S Wires stretching from building to building
W/S Water park
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SCRIPT
Regular power outages in Baghdad have made the unusual heat even harder to cope with for residents, who have been forced to change their work schedules ahead of what is expected to be an especially scorching summer.
Footage shot on Monday shows Iraqis taking refuge in open vans and in the shade of cold drink stands to get away from June’s average temperatures of 48 degrees Celsius (118 Fahrenheit) instead of the usual 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
"It's very hard to do my job in the open under the sun, the heat is really harsh, we can't bear it," says Qais Saad, a resident of Baghdad. "We wake up at dawn and work for four hours, that’s all we can do to deal with the heat."
Most residents reportedly get up to 12 hours of state-provided electricity per day, with some paying for generators to keep the power running, preventing food from going bad in their fridges. However hospitals in Dhi Qar province, south of Baghdad, report up to 17 power cuts per day.