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Flooding
in Kurdistan-Iraq displaces 18,000, Kurdistan Government turned
deaf ears to the affected families |
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Kurd Net
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Flooding in Kurdistan-Iraq displaces
18,000, Kurdistan Government turned deaf ears to the
affected families
22.11.2006
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Heavy rains forces 3,000 families to flee their
demolished homes in Dahuk, Erbil, Sulaimaniyah. They
central and Kurdistan regional governments have
turned deaf ears to the affected Kurdish families.
They have to stop putting money into just their
pockets and they have to stop forgetting poor people
Kurdistan Region (Iraq), November 21, --
Heavy rains, thunderstorms and enormous mudslides in
Kurdistan region (Iraq’s northern autonomous region)
have submerged vast areas and made nearly 3,000
families homeless, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society
(IRCS) said on Tuesday.
Those affected blame the government for not heeding
their repeated calls for better housing.
"We warned both the central and regional governments
many times that we are vulnerable in these houses
and demanded for their urgent help," said Haji
Kemeran Ali, a 66-year-old farmer who is now living
in a small tent with his eight-member family in
Sulaimaniyah.
Mazin Abdullah Salom, an IRCS spokesman in Baghdad,
told IRIN that nearly 3,000 families, about 18,000
individuals, had been forced to flee their
demolished homes in the Dahuk, Erbil and
Sulaimaniyah governorates because of flash floods
that began on 25 October and went on until early
November.
Salom added that these people were now living in
camps and that IRCS volunteers had distributed aid
to them, including food, tents, blankets,
jerry-cans, heaters, mattresses, clothes, carpets,
detergents and shoes.
The International Committee of the Red Crescent (ICRC)
in Iraq said that at least 20 people were killed and
dozens injured in the floods while infrastructure
was severely damaged.
"Bridges, houses, and schools were flattened;
hydropower stations were destroyed; livestock was
decimated; thousands of fruit trees were washed away
and agricultural land was made unusable," the ICRC
said in a statement.
"It is a desperate situation for those who lost all
their basic means of a livelihood. Much more
assistance will be required in order to come back to
normal life,” said Hans Peter Giess, the ICRC relief
coordinator who visited some of the most affected
areas and met with villagers.
The affected families were poor farmers and were
living on mountain cliffs in poorly constructed
houses, mainly made of mud or wood, he said. With
low and limited income, housing has become a serious
problem for many local residents in Iraq's northern
Kurdistan region.
"They [central and Kurdistan regional governments]
have turned deaf ears to our calls. They have to do
something for us.
They have to stop putting money into just their
pockets and they have to stop forgetting poor
people," said farmer Ali, who lost his one-storey
house and all his cattle.
Haji Kemeran Ali, a farmer, and seven members of his
family now share a small tent. "We told both the
central and regional governments many times that we
are vulnerable in these houses and demanded for
their urgent help," he said. Aid workers say that
much of the infrastructure, including bridges and
schools, has been demolished, livestock killed and
fruit trees destroyed.
IRIN | irinnews org | UPI
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