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AL-KAHLA, Iraq - Poverty-stricken Iraqis in the southern rural town of Al-Kahla, Maysan province, demand basic essentials from authorities including job opportunities, and environmental and health protections, slamming declining services in the area, including frequent electricity outages.
Despite numerous protests that locals have staged in the past, their calls for a better life have gone unanswered, sparking further fury among local residents.
Piles of waste and contaminated water have become a daily reality in the area.
Families complain that their children struggle to walk through the mud when they go to school during wintertime.
In addition to the shortages in services, crippling poverty remains the main concern of Al-Kahla residents.
"My father did not find work here, so he went to the province of Basra to work there. He gets 15,000 dinars [$10] a day, enduring the hardships of work,” Abbas Mohammed, a student, told Rudaw’s Anmar Ghazi on Friday.
Mohammed also described the difficulties he faces to keep up studies. He borrows pens and stationery from his friends as he cannot afford to buy them himself. Others however, have been pushed to completely abandon their studies.
Hussein Ali who dropped out of school says the town is surrounded by oil companies, in which none of the people in the region work, except for foreign nationals or people from other Iraqi provinces and areas.
According to data from the Iraqi Planning Ministry, Al-Kalha represents the poorest Iraqi urban region.
"Al-Kahla district represents the poorest district in Iraq,” Ahmed Khalaf Laibi, head of the Social Protection Authority at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs said.
He added that the poverty rate in the district is at 79 percent according to official data provided by the Ministry of Planning.
Iraq’s poverty rate stood at about 20 percent before the coronavirus pandemic – but UNICEF warned in July 2020 that an additional 11.7 percent of Iraqis were at risk of falling below the poverty line because of further economic hardship caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Iraq has not had a consensus since 1997 due to political and economic factors.
Despite numerous protests that locals have staged in the past, their calls for a better life have gone unanswered, sparking further fury among local residents.
Piles of waste and contaminated water have become a daily reality in the area.
Families complain that their children struggle to walk through the mud when they go to school during wintertime.
In addition to the shortages in services, crippling poverty remains the main concern of Al-Kahla residents.
"My father did not find work here, so he went to the province of Basra to work there. He gets 15,000 dinars [$10] a day, enduring the hardships of work,” Abbas Mohammed, a student, told Rudaw’s Anmar Ghazi on Friday.
Mohammed also described the difficulties he faces to keep up studies. He borrows pens and stationery from his friends as he cannot afford to buy them himself. Others however, have been pushed to completely abandon their studies.
Hussein Ali who dropped out of school says the town is surrounded by oil companies, in which none of the people in the region work, except for foreign nationals or people from other Iraqi provinces and areas.
According to data from the Iraqi Planning Ministry, Al-Kalha represents the poorest Iraqi urban region.
"Al-Kahla district represents the poorest district in Iraq,” Ahmed Khalaf Laibi, head of the Social Protection Authority at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs said.
He added that the poverty rate in the district is at 79 percent according to official data provided by the Ministry of Planning.
Iraq’s poverty rate stood at about 20 percent before the coronavirus pandemic – but UNICEF warned in July 2020 that an additional 11.7 percent of Iraqis were at risk of falling below the poverty line because of further economic hardship caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Iraq has not had a consensus since 1997 due to political and economic factors.
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