BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Abbas Mutlaq and Thaer al-Mufti live at opposite ends of Iraq, but both have given up on the government to supply electricity, turning instead to private generators to keep the lights on.

And both say the power supply situation has worsened since the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein despite the billions of dollars set aside by the Bush administration for reconstruction.

“Before the fall of the regime, power was three hours on, three hours off,” said Mutlaq, an auto parts dealer in the southern city of Basra. “Now it comes on for a total of just eight hours (a day) and maybe less.”

For many Iraqis, chronic power problems have become a litmus test of American promises of a better life without Saddam’s tyranny.

Iraqis often ask why a superpower that can send thousands of soldiers, tanks and Humvees to fight a war half a world away cannot guarantee that the lights work.

“I should only complain to God, but let me just say that sometimes we don’t have electricity for 72 hours,” said al-Mufti, a father of five in the northern city of Mosul, some 560 miles north of Basra. “Often, we have one hour of electricity the entire day.”

Baghdad, a city of nearly 7 million people, is a city starved for energy. Most streets are not lit at night, when the din of power generators fills the air. Wires connecting neighborhood generators to private homes hang over narrow alleys in poor residential areas.

U.S. officials have acknowledged that the failure to provide power has dogged the American mission in Iraq since the beginning.

In a Senate testimony Wednesday, Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the U.S. special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, blamed insurgent attacks and higher demand for the shortfall and acknowledged that the electricity situation is worse now than under Saddam.

“Often, those commenting on Iraq reconstruction begin by stating that electrical capacity is lower than prewar levels,” Bowen told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “They are correct.”

Of 425 electricity-related projects, Bowen said only 300 would be completed before the $18.6 billion approved by Congress in November 2003 for reconstruction in Iraq runs out.

“Everyone dreamed of a better life after Saddam went. We wanted more electricity and a generally higher standard of living,” Mutlaq said. “We are still shocked that none of our dreams came true. Nothing happened and some people even think life under Saddam was better.”

The problem of electricity becomes more unbearable in summer, when temperatures soar to 120 for months. That forces many residents to sleep on their rooftops.

With electricity erratic at best, clean drinking water also has become rare. Even if the water is purified at treatment plants, lack of power often means water cannot be pumped to apartment dwellers.

Renowned for their resilience, most Iraqis cope by drawing power from neighborhood generators run and maintained by businessmen for a fee. But a recent increase in fuel prices means electricity is more expensive.

Iraqis pay an average of about $2 every three months for electricity since the government subsidizes the cost and power outages are frequent. Private power, however, can cost an average of $20 per month – a burden in a country where $200 a month is a common salary.

Insurgent attacks and the ever-present danger of kidnapping mean that up to 22 percent of all reconstruction project funds, including those for electricity, goes to security, according to General Accounting Office figures.

The power supply has been erratic for months in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province and a stronghold of the insurgency, with outages lasting days.

The main telephone exchange caught fire and burned last week during a gunfight between insurgents and U.S. troops in the city west of Baghdad, witnesses said.

“It’s been difficult getting people to work because of the security situation,” said Marine Lt. Col. Mike Reilly, who works on reconstruction projects in Ramadi that are funded by the U.S. military.

“Here, there’s a lot of problems with water and sewage. Some of it may be due to the insurgency, some may be due to neglect.”