ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Three members of the same family drowned while swimming in the Little Khabour River in Zakho, Duhok province on Friday. Two are still missing.
Hot weather makes the Region’s lakes and rivers a popular destination for locals and visitors to cool off. But poor enforcement of safety regulations leads to dozens of drownings each year.
Rebwar Abdulaziz, spokesperson for Duhok Civil Defense, told Rudaw “the bodies of three have been found while two are still missing”.
According to witnesses who spoke to Rudaw, Solin Hussein, 17, got into difficulty while cooling off in the river.
Her father Hassan, who is in his fifties, and mother Haybat Haji, 45, came to her rescue, but they too were caught in the strong current.
Siblings Abdulqadir, 13, and Salar, 9, also jumped in to save their family, but were swept away.
Hassan and Abdulqadir are still missing. The search continues.
Amir Ali, spokesperson for the Duhok Health Department, told Rudaw they had received three bodies. Civil defense units and relatives are still searching for the missing two.
One witness told Rudaw he and his brothers saw three bodies floating down the river and pulled them from the water.
“We did our best but could not save any of them,” the witness Dlovan Qadir said.
“One of the girls was still alive and my brothers and I rescued her,” he said.
Solin was pulled from the water alive, but died on her way to hospital.
She, her mother Haybat, and younger brother Salar were buried on Friday night.
The Little Khabur River originates in neighboring Turkey and flows through the Kurdistan Region before feeding into the Tigris at the tripoint of Turkey, Syria, and Iraq.
According to Duhok’s civil emergency services, 25 people drowned in the first seven months of 2018.
Duhok province saw the highest rate of drownings in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq for 2018.
Around 100 people drowned in the Tigris River on March 21 this year in the Iraqi city of Mosul when a ferry capsized.
Following the incident, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced stricter regulations for water attractions and watercraft operators, demanding patrons and passengers must wear lifejackets.
“If any tourist gets on a watercraft without wearing a lifejacket, the owner of the watercraft will be punished,” Mawlawi Jabbar, head of the KRG’s tourism directorate, told Rudaw at the time.
The Little Khabur and other rivers in the area can be fast flowing after the rainy winter season.
