Kurdistan
Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw speaking at a press conference on March 27, 2022. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Erbil governor on Sunday pledged over seven billion Iraqi dinars as financial aid to civilians affected by the severe winter floods that ravaged mostly impoverished parts of the city earlier, leading to various deaths and millions of dollars in damages.
In a press conference, Omed Khoshnaw said that committees are currently detailing the scale of the victims' financial losses and that the affected people "will be contacted and a location will be determined, and some committees will help people with the money" in the upcoming days.
Heavy floods stormed through the city in December and January, killing a dozen people, including a ten-month old baby whose body was found nearly two months after his disappearance.
Seven and a half billion Iraqi dinars ($5.1 million) have been allocated to the families affected by the floods.
The flash floods damaged "1,189 cars, 35 motorcycles, 3,183 families, 408 houses, and 350 shops," according to the governor.
Khoshnaw stated that the financial losses from the heavy flooding are "estimated at 20 to 21 billion dinars," and further expressed his disappointment with the Iraqi federal government for having "not yet made enough decisions to help them [the victims]."
Erbil in December rejected two billion dollars dedicated towards flood prevention in the Kurdistan Region by the Iraqi government.
Erbil suffers from an inadequate water supply distribution network and an unsustainable drainage system leading to flooding as sewers often overflow, leading to sewage escaping and mixing with stormwater.
The governor blamed residential projects built on Erbil's natural drainage canals as a core aggravator for the floods' severities, saying "we have to punish the projects that were responsible for the damages and made the floods bring about more damages." He also said that measures will be taken against the authorities that gave permission to the implementation of these projects.
Erbil province often faces severe floods in the colder seasons of the year. Nearly 600 houses suffered material damage and stalling vehicles blocked flooded main roads in strong torrential rains in late October.
The floods came after the Kurdistan Region faced a record dry year, with several lakes and rivers drying up and thousands of crops damaged.
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