Amina Qadir has lived in Darbandikhan for 70 years. For 30 of those years, she fetched water from a spring, but cannot do that now because of her age. Today, she depends on bottles of water her relatives bring when they visit.
“Our tap water is not suitable for drinking because it is dirty and stinks,” she said, adding that cancer could knock on their doors if they drink the water. “When I host guests, instead of offering them water I ask them to bring me some.”
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said in 2013 it would build a water treatment plant in Darbandikhan to address the city’s drinking water scarcity. The project was supposed to be completed within a year, but it has been stalled because of lack of funding.
Ali Mohammed, a retiree, drives his car to a nearby public tap more than twice a week to fill ten bottles with water for drinking.
“We do not have drinking water in Darbandikhan. Some people rely on these taps and others have dug wells,” he said.
Darbandikhan is home to Kurdistan Region’s second largest dam, Darbandikhan Dam, which has the capacity of three billion cubic meters. Dewana Dam is also located near the city and can hold 20 million cubic meters of water.
Darbandikhan Mayor Sulaiman Mohammed told Rudaw that all the administrative work for restarting the water treatment plant has been completed and they are waiting for funds.
Hunar Hamid contributed to this article.
