50 protests since the beginning of summer

Why is Diwaniyah leading the country’s protests?

2024-07-29 | 18:18

DIWANIYAH– Since the beginning of summer, more than 50 protests were reported in Diwaniyah, south of Iraq. According to experts, officials, and locals, the ongoing protests are driven by a lack of essential services, including water and ongoing electricity issues, delays in project completions, and corruption.

This was discussed in a meeting in Ghammas district of the governorate aimed at creating a channel of communications between protestors and the officials in order to find solutions.

The meeting was organized by lawyer Nihaya Hussein al-Khazraji in collaboration with the Moja Organization and the Youth Forum. Diwaniyah Provincial Council member Ahmed Sager al-Bashat, Ghammas qaymaqam (district administrator) Mohammed Swadi al-Khazaei, and Ghammas municipality director Uday al-Hijami attended the meeting.

The session focused on the reasons behind Diwaniyah leading the country in the number of protests, which have reached nearly 50 since the beginning of the summer. It also addressed issues like poor services, stalled projects in the Ghammas district, and the plight of farmers facing drought and water shortages.

Ahmed Sager al-Bashat, head of the Energy Committee in the Diwaniyah Provincial Council, told 964media, “It was an opportunity to follow up on stalled projects in Ghammas and to get a close look at the service reality.”

“We clarified the blurred picture for the citizens, and most of the questions were about electricity. The electricity problem is a general issue in Diwaniyah, where the governorate suffers from fluctuating supply hours,” he said.

Other questions were related to delayed projects in the district, such as the hospital and the sewage project, which they are following up on with the local government.

Mohammed Jamal, one of the organizers of the seminar, told 964media: “The aim of the seminar was to bridge the gap between the government and the people. In the recent protests, we noticed that the main problem was that the government does not listen to the people, so we wanted to create direct communication between the two sides, as well as to convey the voice in a peaceful and civilized manner.”

“We invited influential and specialized individuals from the Ghammas district to discuss the issues with the officials and to find solutions for the problems that Ghammas and Diwaniyah in general are suffering from,” Jamal added.

More than 50 protests took place in Diwaniyah since the beginning of the summer.