Faintings, blackouts and violence: Iraq’s scorching emergency – in pictures

Supported by
About this content

The country’s average temperature has risen by 0.48C a decade from 2000. Last August, photographer Susan Schulman visited Baghdad and Amarah, to capture the impact of extreme weather on everyday lives

Main image: At Amarah’s Al-Sadr hospital, medical staff, patients and their families struggle as busy wards overheat and tempers fray.

  • A man swelters in Baghdad’s scorching August heat. Summer temperatures in Iraq can reach 50C, far higher than two decades ago, when they would rarely exceed 40C
    An older man with his shirt half unbuttoned looks uncomfortable outside a building under a clear blue sky

  • A vendor selling fresh fish seeks respite from 49C heat in Amarah, a city on the Tigris River near the Iranian border
    A woman completely covered in a black hijab and abaya robe displays fish in two crates laid out in the small square of shade provided by a cloth strung between poles

  • Cooking fish over an open flame is hot work in Amarah’s summer heat
    A man in a tracksuit prepares food next to lines of fish being cooked over an open fire

  • In June 2024, the Iraqi government reduced public sector working hours to alleviate the burden of extreme heat on employees such as this street cleaner in Amarah
    A man sweeps up rubbish next to a wheelbarrow on an empty street. Across the road is parked a yellow tuktuk

  • An exhausted dog lies in a rare puddle to cool off in Amarah
    A dog lies in a puddle on a deserted street near a Toyota truck

  • A power cut plunges an Amarah juice bar into darkness. With summers in Iraq getting hotter, blackouts are increasing, as demand for electricity vastly exceeds supply
    A man stands at a juice bar counter in the dark

  • Tangles of wires are ubiquitous throughout Iraq’s cities. They are becoming even more dangerous in extreme temperatures as the insulation on the cables can melt and cause fire
    A tangle of wires attached to a pole criss-cross a blue sky in front of a house

  • Abbas Hassan, 65, makes a living operating a private generator in Amarah: ‘A lot of homes ask me for electricity. More every year.’ Drought has forced 140,000 Iraqis to abandon their land for cities, adding to the burden on an energy grid already overloaded with demand for air conditioning
    A smiling man in a dishdasha robe stands next to a large generator in a basement

  • At Amarah’s Al-Sadr hospital, relatives of patients crowd into a dark, hot corridor during a blackout. The hospital has two huge generators but they are not enough to power the whole building, so the most critical zones are prioritised
    A group of men and women wearing hijabs stand in a crowded corridor lit only by one light in the ceiling

  • On the hospital wards, which often have no windows, temperatures can reach a stifling 40C when the electricity cuts out
    Patients and visitors on a basic hospital ward with one visible air conditioning unit and no privacy curtains

  • Al-Sadr hospital is often hot and crowded, creating more challenging conditions for staff to work in
    Staff standing at a busy reception desk in a hospital strewn with papers and a blood pressure monitor

  • A poster in the hospital warns against violence, levels of which increase in extreme heat. ‘It’s not just physical attacks,’ says Dr Ahmed Saleh, 31. ‘There are threats of kidnapping, of revenge against our families. Some doctors have been forced to pay “blood money” to families of deceased patients’
    A cartoon poster hanging off a wall shows a patient lying down looking scared while an angry man hits a doctor with a stethoscope behind her

  • Dr Bassim, president of the Baghdad Medical Syndicate and manager of the Al-Sadr hospital, says they have had to increase security. ‘We now have 60 armed security personnel on duty 24 hours a day,’ he says. ‘Violence has become our daily reality’
    A woman, child and man stand at the end of dilapidated hospital corridor with paint peeling off the walls and doors

  • Staff struggle with overcrowding and a lack of resources in extreme temperatures. ‘Heat makes them more tense than usual,’ says Dr Muhammad Joseph, an internal medicine specialist at Baghdad’s St Raphael hospital
    A patient lies in bed in an overcrowded ward surrounded by female doctors next to a medicine trolley

  • A small child, weak and feverish from the heat, cries as her mother and a doctor try to comfort her in the emergency room at Al-Sadr
    A small girl stands crying as her mother strokes her head and a doctor holds her hand

  • The Number 2 Health Centre in Baghdad’s Sadr City district relies on an old, rusty generator during the frequent power cuts. It doesn’t always work
    A decrepit generator in a roofless area with 2012 painted on it surrounded by junk

  • Work continues in the dark as the electricity fails again at the Number 2 Health Centre in Sadr City
    A veiled woman and a man sitting at a desk talk in an office with two people standing in gloom

  • As a nurse at the Number 2 Health Centre overseeing 12,600 pupils at 26 schools for 10 years, Muhammed Jassim, 43, has seen the situation deteriorate. As more climate-displaced families arrive in the city, overcrowded schools are having to teach in split shifts, with sweltering classes of up to 60 children
    A man in a hospital lab coat talks to a young girl standing at his desk

  • Jassim shows his register of pupils fainting from the heat in class. ‘Each month, there are about 100 cases,’ he says. ‘These students often end up in hospital, where they add to the numbers for the overloaded medical staff’
    A man points at names a log book
Topics