“The governor's project to plant 1,000 trees will be officially implemented,” Adnan Hama Shuker, spokesman for the Kirkuk municipality, told Rudaw on Sunday, referring to the mid-December decision by Governor Rebwar Taha to oblige each company to plant 1,000 trees to continue operations.
He added that the rate of greenery in Kirkuk province is only three percent, while they need at least 15 percent.
Shuker said that Kirkuk also suffers from a water shortage, noting that “the gardening departments have tried to dig wells, but there is no water.”
They have installed drip irrigation systems in most of the green areas of Kirkuk, but “without water, the [irrigation] system will not work and will not solve the problem,” he said.
In December, Governor Taha stressed that companies operating in Kirkuk will not be awarded projects unless they comply with the tree-planting condition.
“We used to see stars in the sky, but now we don't see them, so our environment is dirty. Any company that wants to work in Kirkuk must bring us 1,000 trees,” Taha told Rudaw at the time. “They must also pay the cost of planting the trees. In my time [as governor of Kirkuk], no company will receive projects unless they plant 1,000 trees.”
The decision was welcomed by environmentalists in Kirkuk who also highlighted the bad air quality.
"The governor's project is a good attempt to green the city," environmentalist Shokofa Salayi told Rudaw, highlighting that the trees and shrubs usually planted in the city are not suitable because they require a lot of water and do not adapt to the environment there.
Five devices measure air quality in different areas of the city. The concentration of fine particulate matter in the air should not exceed 10 micrometers but in Kirkuk, it is between 15 and 20 micrometers on average, Salayi explained.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the concentration of fine particulate matter in the air should not exceed five micrograms per cubic meter.
Industry, oil refineries, hundreds of generators, and traffic congestion all contribute to Iraq’s air pollution.
Iraq ranks sixth among the worst countries in the world for air quality, according to the IQAir agency, which monitors global air quality.
