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Kurdistan
A man sprays water to wash the concrete in front of a shop in Erbil. File photo: Bilind T. Abdullah/Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Sulaimani province is facing water shortages, with at least 35 percent of available water going to waste daily, the head of the water directorate told Rudaw.
“On a daily basis, the province needs 450 to 500 thousand cubic meters of water, now we only have 200 to 250 thousand cubic meter,” Sarbast Othman, head of Sulaimani’s water directorate, told Rudaw Radio on Wednesday. “According to our research, 35 to 50 percent of Sulaimani’s water goes to waste.”
This year, abnormally low amounts of rain and snow coupled with construction dams in neighboring countries have placed additional strain on already fragile water resources in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials warned in April that the region was in the midst of a water crisis. The KRG in August allocated nearly 4 billion dinars to the Ministry of Municipalities and Tourism to be distributed to provincial and administrative authorities to address water security issues.
According to data from the General Directorate of Water Resources, every individual in the Kurdistan Region needs an average of 200-250 liters of water daily, but individual water consumption stands at an average 370-400 liters daily.
“We carried out research at Sulaimani’s Khabat neighborhood and found out that in the mornings, out of every ten houses, five have washed the street in front of their houses,” Shwan Jaff, head of an environment organization COEF, told Rudaw Radio.
Last month, the Groundwater Directorate of Sulaimani told Rudaw that Sulaimani’s water table has dropped by 17 meters in some places in the past three years due to illegal wells and water overuse.
The Kurdistan Region Council of Ministers held a meeting Wednesday discussing, among other topics, the region’s water shortage.
The ministers of tourism and municipality and of agriculture and water resources said that they are working on providing people with fresh water by preserving underground water sources. According to a statement, they intend to make use of above-ground water by means of building dams and creating budgets for the cities’ water directorates.
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