Sulaimani’s green spaces wither due to lack of money, park employees

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Sulaimani’s green spaces are yellowed and dry this year, bearing the brunt of a water crisis and lack of municipal funds.

“We have no flowers left; all of the flowers have died. A large number died last year. This year we replanted them, but they are also going to die. A park this big can’t go on like this with no budget,” Rebin Sheikh Jamil, director of Hawari Shar park, the biggest in the city, told Rudaw’s Arkan Ali on Sunday.

“It’s May and we don’t have a budget yet,” Jamil added, warning that the park is vulnerable to fires.

He said they have been waiting for a budget since January 2020.

“Green spaces and Hawari Shar park are in a really bad condition,” Kamaran Salih, from the city’s park directorate told Rudaw’s Snwr Majid on Sunday.

“We are waiting for the council of ministers mercy. They‘re in contact with the municipality and the governor” for an agreement, he added

Green spaces account for 19 percent of Sulaimani city, according to the park directorate’s manager. Salih says the level could have been 30 percent had they been provided with the same amount of budget and support as in 2012, when four parks and 69 gardens were built and 400,000 trees were planted.

Sulaimani has two stretches of greenery lining the Malik Mahmoud and Tasluja roads, at 21 kilometers and 15 kilometers respectively, but a lack of money, suitable equipment and workers to maintain the area is a big challenge.

“We have equipment and machines but they need fixing and replaced. We have [water] tanks from the 1980s,“ says Salih, adding that the irrigation system works well but there is no one to supervise it.

The Kurdistan Region is in the midst of a water crisis due to a lack of rain and the dams being built in neighbouring Iran, officials told Rudaw in April. But the drought is also blamed on poor water management and a lack of funds from the government.