No electricity grid access forces exodus from Garmiyan villages
GARMIYAN, Kurdistan Region — Villages in the Garmiyan administration have gradually emptied as authorities have failed to provide national power grid access.
According to the General Directorate of Garmiyan Electricity, there are 43 villages in the administrative area without national grid access.
The number of families in these villages has shrunk from 475 in 2003, to 112 now, according to the directorate.
To create the power source they need, some villagers have built their own generators.
“This was a tractor engine, we turned it into a generator. We spend around 400,000 to 500,000 IQD ($320-400) to buy diesel,” Imad Ahmed, a resident of Dangawara village said.
“We’ve asked for state electricity several times, only asking them [the authorities] to bring us a power cable and a transformer – we’ll buy the poles on our own,” Ahmed said.
“So far, they have done nothing for us. This village used to have 12 families, now there are only two because of the lack of electricity. If you bring the electricity, they will all return.”
Villagers say the lack of electricity is depriving them of even the most basic of needs.
“We don’t have electricity. We use the generator. If we put whey, butter or anything into the refrigerator, it gets sour… We don’t have hot water. We use fire to boil water,” said Khadija Mohammed, a resident of Dangawara village.
Some of the villages were destroyed by the Baath regime, but rebuilt after the 1991 Kurdish uprising. Other villages were reconstructed after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. But an electricity grid was never built.
To provide the villages with electricity, the General Directorate of Garmiyan Electricity has put forward a cost estimate of 1.7 billion IQD ($1.43 million) to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Electricity and Planning.
There are 241 villages in the Kurdistan Region without access to the national power grid, according to the ministry, with 118 of those villages in Sulaimani province.
Reporting by Halo Mohammed
Translation and video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed
According to the General Directorate of Garmiyan Electricity, there are 43 villages in the administrative area without national grid access.
The number of families in these villages has shrunk from 475 in 2003, to 112 now, according to the directorate.
To create the power source they need, some villagers have built their own generators.
“This was a tractor engine, we turned it into a generator. We spend around 400,000 to 500,000 IQD ($320-400) to buy diesel,” Imad Ahmed, a resident of Dangawara village said.
“We’ve asked for state electricity several times, only asking them [the authorities] to bring us a power cable and a transformer – we’ll buy the poles on our own,” Ahmed said.
“So far, they have done nothing for us. This village used to have 12 families, now there are only two because of the lack of electricity. If you bring the electricity, they will all return.”
Villagers say the lack of electricity is depriving them of even the most basic of needs.
“We don’t have electricity. We use the generator. If we put whey, butter or anything into the refrigerator, it gets sour… We don’t have hot water. We use fire to boil water,” said Khadija Mohammed, a resident of Dangawara village.
Some of the villages were destroyed by the Baath regime, but rebuilt after the 1991 Kurdish uprising. Other villages were reconstructed after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. But an electricity grid was never built.
To provide the villages with electricity, the General Directorate of Garmiyan Electricity has put forward a cost estimate of 1.7 billion IQD ($1.43 million) to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Electricity and Planning.
There are 241 villages in the Kurdistan Region without access to the national power grid, according to the ministry, with 118 of those villages in Sulaimani province.
Reporting by Halo Mohammed
Translation and video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed