ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Nearly 60,000 residents in the Darbandikhan district, located in the eastern Sulaimani province of the Kurdistan Region, continue to bear the brunt of the critical shortage of clean drinking water. While the crisis has been ongoing for more than two decades, local officials tell Rudaw the situation could worsen this summer as water scarcity deepens.
Despite being home to the second-largest dam in the Kurdistan Region - with a capacity of around three billion cubic meters - Darbandikhan’s population remains without access to safe drinking water.
“Our dam currently holds more than 1.5 billion cubic meters of stored water, yet our residents still suffer from a lack of clean water,” said Sulaiman Mohammed, administrator of Darbandikhan district, in an interview with Rudaw on Sunday.
The main water source for both the Darbandikhan Dam and local water projects is the Sirwan River. However, Mohammed emphasized that untreated sewage from Sulaimani city flows into the river before reaching Darbandikhan, heavily polluting the water supply.
Since 2008, the Kurdistan Region’s Health Ministry has formally declared the Sirwan River water within Darbandikhan’s boundaries unsafe for human consumption.
According to Mohammed, 97 percent of Darbandikhan residents avoid drinking water supplied through the public distribution network due to fears over its contamination - a figure Rudaw has not independently verified.
However, in September, a resident in Darbandikhan, Amina Qadir, told Rudaw, "Our tap water is not suitable for drinking because it is dirty and wreaks of bad odors."
“People are afraid of getting diseases. Cancer could knock on our doors if we keep drinking this water,” she stressed.
To address the crisis, a strategic water project was launched with a groundbreaking ceremony on February 14, 2014. While some initial work was completed, progress has stalled for several years due to funding shortages.
Mohammed noted that Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani has twice promised to resolve the financial issues holding up the project, but no concrete results have followed.
“I appeal to all Kurdistan Region officials to complete the Darbandikhan water project as soon as possible,” Mohammed urged, “and to prevent a full-blown crisis from emerging this summer.”
Constructed in 1961, the Darbandikhan Dam not only plays a key role in generating electricity for multiple cities but also regulates water flow to farmlands across Garmiyan and central Iraq.
