Lacking salaries from Iraq, dam workers in Kurdistan strike
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Dukan and Darbandikhan dams’ employees have gone on strike to protest not being paid their salaries.
"Our strike includes merely turning off the turbines, meaning not producing electricity. Secondly, [it includes] some of our employees not coming to work, some, not all,” Jawhar Omer, the supervisor of maintenance of Dukan's Electricity Station, told Rudaw.
However, he added: “We cannot let all of our employees go all at once for the safety of the station.”
More than 250 employees of the station have stopped working. They threaten to fully withhold the dam's water should their demands not be met.
"We will not put an end to our strike. But for the interest of the people of Sulaimani, Sulaimani's water, and even Kirkuk, which depends on the river passing through this station, we have decided to open two spillways," Salam Ahmed, the manager of Dukan's Electricity Production Station, told Rudaw.
The dam employees were among the very first of KRG’s civil servants to be paid salaries by the Iraqi government in late-2017.
There are 17 dams across the Kurdistan Region, which supply much of the water to Iraq. Dukan holds nearly 7 billion cubic-meters of water and Darbandikhan has 3 billion cubic-meters. There are nearly 400 employees and managers working at dams in the Kurdistan Region.
"Within all the joint delegations between the Iraqi government the Kurdistan Regional Government that met for the topic of salaries, one of the topics was transferring the salaries of the employees of the Dukan and Darbandikhan dams, and the stations to the Iraqi government [payroll]. The problem mostly has to do with the Iraqi government," Shaho Osman, the mayor of Dukan, told Rudaw.
The hydroelectric stations of both Dukan and Darbandikhan have the capacity to produce around 800 megawatts of electricity, but due to depreciation of facilities and instruments, they are producing only 100 megawatts.
Darbandikhan dam was severely damaged due to the strong earthquake that hit the Iraq-Iran border in November 2017.
In addition to the strike by the dam employees, residents in Shingal have complained that hospitals and medical facilities now under the control of the Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries are not staffed.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi also announced in January that Arabic schools in the Kurdistan Region for IDPs would close.
"Our strike includes merely turning off the turbines, meaning not producing electricity. Secondly, [it includes] some of our employees not coming to work, some, not all,” Jawhar Omer, the supervisor of maintenance of Dukan's Electricity Station, told Rudaw.
However, he added: “We cannot let all of our employees go all at once for the safety of the station.”
More than 250 employees of the station have stopped working. They threaten to fully withhold the dam's water should their demands not be met.
"We will not put an end to our strike. But for the interest of the people of Sulaimani, Sulaimani's water, and even Kirkuk, which depends on the river passing through this station, we have decided to open two spillways," Salam Ahmed, the manager of Dukan's Electricity Production Station, told Rudaw.
The dam employees were among the very first of KRG’s civil servants to be paid salaries by the Iraqi government in late-2017.
There are 17 dams across the Kurdistan Region, which supply much of the water to Iraq. Dukan holds nearly 7 billion cubic-meters of water and Darbandikhan has 3 billion cubic-meters. There are nearly 400 employees and managers working at dams in the Kurdistan Region.
"Within all the joint delegations between the Iraqi government the Kurdistan Regional Government that met for the topic of salaries, one of the topics was transferring the salaries of the employees of the Dukan and Darbandikhan dams, and the stations to the Iraqi government [payroll]. The problem mostly has to do with the Iraqi government," Shaho Osman, the mayor of Dukan, told Rudaw.
The hydroelectric stations of both Dukan and Darbandikhan have the capacity to produce around 800 megawatts of electricity, but due to depreciation of facilities and instruments, they are producing only 100 megawatts.
Darbandikhan dam was severely damaged due to the strong earthquake that hit the Iraq-Iran border in November 2017.
In addition to the strike by the dam employees, residents in Shingal have complained that hospitals and medical facilities now under the control of the Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries are not staffed.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi also announced in January that Arabic schools in the Kurdistan Region for IDPs would close.
Some teachers and health workers in the Kurdistan Region are also striking and protesting because of a lack of salaries.