Oil price hikes push many to resort to burning wood to stay warm in Sulaimani

Rudaw

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region - The arrival of the cold weather coupled with oil price hikes has driven many people in Sulaimani province to resort to using wood heaters to help ease some of the financial burdens on their shoulders.

Finding heating oil expensive to buy, Luqman Adil, a local in Sulaimani city's Kani Kurda neighborhood has been using wood heaters for two consecutive winters to warm up his house.

"We were unable to afford buying heating oil,” Luqman Abdul, a local, told Rudaw’s Nzar Jaza on Sunday. 

The price of one barrel of heating oil stands at 240,000 Iraqi dinars ($167).  

According to unofficial data Rudaw has received from three traders importing heaters into the Kurdistan Region, they altogether imported 710 wood heaters, up from last year's 350.

Several people across the Kurdistan Region on a monthly basis are arrested for cutting down trees, including a man who cut down more than 1,000 oak trees in Duhok province last year.

"In the past, the majority of villagers used to use wood heaters. When they knew they were useful, many other people in the urban areas followed suit," Omed Omar, a trader importing heaters to the Kurdistan Region told Rudaw on Sunday.

Omar went on to say: "For example, if in the past only five people would come and demand wood heaters, the number is 20 now."

In addition to imported wood heaters, there is high demand for domestic wood heaters.

"Over the past two years, people have started buying wood heaters in the urban areas, too. However, in the past, it was only villagers buying. Turkish heaters are expensive while domestic heaters are sold for 40-50,000 dinars," Hazhar Mahmood, owner of a domestic factory making household appliances in Sulaimani said.

The massive use of wood heaters comes at the expense of the environment.

The Kurdistan Region’s Forest Police and Environment Directorate has previously told Rudaw that more than 4,000 dunams of land and green spaces had been burned by Turkish bombardments in the Region's mountainous areas.

As winter intensifies, woodcutters chop down trees in the Kurdistan Region's mountainous areas.

In the course of the past three months, more than two dozen woodcutters have been arrested in Duhok province alone, Jamal Saado, commander of the Environment Protection Peshmerga Forces of Duhok, previously told Rudaw.