Residents of Erbil village selling their homes due to water crisis

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Three hundred houses in a village in Erbil province’s Shamamk district have not had water for a month. Around fifteen houses are also reportedly listed for sale as residents are fed up of the shortages. 

Kafia Ali, a resident of the village, put a water hose in a 20-liter bottle in an attempt to fill it. She has already filled three liters in two hours and has to buy water every two days. 

Another resident, moved his family to his father’s house because of the water supply shortages.  

“The water should be available for us now, but there is no water,” Ibrahim Yousif, a local resident, told Rudaw’s Farhad Dolamari on Friday.

“It has been three days since I sent my wife and kids to my father’s house because there is no water,” he added.

At the door of almost every house in the village, you see a row of water bottles.

Over a hundred new water wells have been drilled in Erbil province at a cost of more than 7 billion dinars [$4,805], most of which have been set up to replace the older, dried up wells. 

According to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Ministry of Municipalities and Tourism, underground water levels have decreased by 500 meters over the past 20 years. 

In addition, 138 wells will be dug up in order to address the worsening water crisis. The ministry added that as of this year, 300 wells have already dried up.