The other side of Kurdistan… 16 years of residents of Darbandikhan using contaminated water!

Every morning, before heading to his job as a middle school physics teacher, Farhad Abdullah (48 years old) places several large empty plastic containers in his car trunk and drives two kilometers to the location of an artesian well on the outskirts of his town, Darbandikhan, in the Sulaymaniyah governorate, to fill them with water and return home to his family. He places the first container under the tap of a large white water tank next to the well, stating that what he does is a ritual he has been accustomed to for years. He raises his fingers: “It has been four years since I started bringing water from this well, which was dug by a benefactor at his own expense. Before that, I used to bring it from a more distant artesian well, and for a period, I fetched water from a spring in the north of the district.”

Farhad looks at his outstretched fingers and says: “Since 2008, the water that reaches our homes through the supply network has been contaminated and completely unfit for human consumption. Since then, I, along with many of my neighbors, relatives, and acquaintances in the town and the district in general, have been obtaining water from wells and springs. Those who have the financial means buy bottled mineral water from the market.”

He tightly closes the tap after ensuring that the container, which holds twenty liters, is full and continues with a sense of resignation: “It is not completely safe for drinking, but it is much better than the water that comes to our home from the treatment plant.”

He grips the handle of the container and lifts it heavily to his car trunk, stopping midway to carefully place it on the ground, and says after raising his arms: “Since 2008, I have participated in many demonstrations and sit-ins in the city of Darbandikhan, protesting against water pollution and seeking a solution to our chronic problem.”

He lowers his hands and wonders softly while shaking his head: “Guess what happened?” He doesn’t wait for an answer, raises the container again, and walks to the car while his voice rises, responding: “Nothing, of course, every time they give us promises, and the result is zero.” 

For decades, the residents of the Darbandikhan district, which has more than 100,000 inhabitants, have relied on the waters of a lake bearing the same name as the district, located on its eastern side, fed by two rivers: The Sirwan, flowing from Iran, and an internal river named Tangro. However, the situation has changed in recent years with the scarcity of the lake’s water due to the drought affecting the region and the reduction of water flow from Iran through the Sirwan River, sometimes even cutting it off. 

The district mayor, Suleiman Mohammed, states that climate changes and the scarcity of rainfall in recent seasons have led to a significant decrease in the lake’s water level and an increase in pollutant concentration, thus “the treatment plant is no longer able to purify it and deliver it safe for drinking to citizens’ homes and workplaces.” 

He points out that the same issue has occurred with the two rivers feeding the lake: “The waters of Sirwan have become scarce and reach the lake after mixing with the polluted waters of Tangro due to human activities and factories in Sulaymaniyah that dump their waste into the river without any environmental treatment, exacerbating the situation in the lake.” 

The mayor notes that 20% of the district’s residents rely on the drinking water supplied to them for daily consumption, and they are forced to use polluted water, knowing this, due to their lack of other options: “Not everyone can transport water from wells to their homes or buy water from the market.”

Specialists in the field of water, whom the investigative reporter met, do not rely on a solution to the problem after the wave of heavy and exceptional rainfall that fell in the current season, which filled the Derbandikhan Dam Lake, reaching according to official estimates more than four billion cubic meters in March 2024. They expect it to decline quickly, as happened in the seasons after 2019, due to increased water releases from the dam and the weak inflows from the Sirwan River.

An Old Problem

Following increased public pressure on the local government in Sulaymaniyah after 2008, the Ministry of Interior in the Kurdistan Region formed a committee to address the issue of water pollution in Derbandikhan by attempting to prevent sources of pollution. However, it “failed to do anything, and this was repeated with other committees formed afterward, leaving pollution ongoing with all the threats it poses to the lives of the city’s residents,” according to environmental activist Hawkar Qadir.

All the authorities could do was warn against using that water. The Health Department affiliated with the Ministry of Health in Kurdistan requested on October 8, 2008, that the Health Department of Garmian warn citizens in Derbandikhan against using tap water for drinking due to its contamination.

The documents circulated among the relevant official bodies during that period requested advising residents to resort to alternative water sources, such as artesian wells and spring water, or to boil tap water until the pollution problem is resolved, indicating the government’s efforts to implement a project to secure clean water for the region’s residents.

The problem persisted throughout the following year’s months, as revealed by an official letter sent from the Health Affairs Department to the Sulaymaniyah Health Department in August 2009, informing them of the “poor” results of the microbiological tests conducted in June and July on the water that was supposed to have been treated from the Darbandikhan Lake by the old operational purification plant.

The letter confirmed that the water was unfit for drinking, requested more oversight, daily testing, and the formation of joint committees with municipalities to conduct visits to the chlorine addition sites for the water and closely monitor their work and document any shortcomings.

The failure of the purification operations to produce potable water highlighted the urgent need for a new project with modern technologies. In October 2009, the Kurdistan Regional Government announced its intention to establish an advanced water purification plant to be implemented by the British company Ukfilter at a cost of three million dollars, sourcing its water from Darbandikhan Lake.

The company was supposed to complete its work within just eight months, allowing residents to have clean water by mid-2010. However, this never materialized due to delays in the project.

According to a project employee, who preferred to remain anonymous, disagreements occurred between the relevant government authorities and the executing company, which prevented the completion of the project, with the problem worsening due to the decrease in water quantities and the increase in pollutants. The employee pointed out that the Sulaimaniyah Water Directorate revealed new results for its water analyses in 2010 that contradicted previous ones, showing that the water reaching citizens through the supply network was suitable for drinking. He stated, “Perhaps they tried with that lie to absorb the anger of the citizens.”

The employee noted that the Scientific Consulting Office at the University of Sulaimani had a differing opinion from the water directorate’s analyses during the same period, as it sent the governorate results of an analysis conducted by workers in the consulting office on that water, which showed it contained “copper, chromium, and cadmium” originating from industrial waste.

The Scientific Consulting Office mentioned that, in addition to the unsuitability of that water for human consumption, it causes the death of some aquatic life, indicating a dangerous change in the quality of the water from the Darbandikhan Dam. The office suggested to the Sulaimaniyah governorate to establish a water purification station similar to those in the southern governorates, stating, “It can be established and operated within just six months, and it will prevent the leakage of pollutants from the Tanjaro and Sirwan rivers into the Darbandikhan Lake,” according to the employee.

He continued, “With those results and under the pressure of popular protests and repeated complaints, the Sulaimaniyah governorate administration was forced to form a committee to expedite the completion of the promised purification station, and that was in 2010, but nothing was achieved on the ground due to a lack of funding.”

“The problem persisted until there was direct intervention from the Ministry of Water Resources in Erbil, and the project was handed over to the Turkish company, Ohetan.” This company contributes to the completion of many projects in the Kurdistan Region, and with it, officials launched promises of the imminent completion of the project, saving tens of thousands of residents from the threat of contracting a range of dangerous diseases and the daily struggle to find potable water.

In October 2013, under pressure from renewed protests, the governor decided to provide drinking water to the citizens in Darbandikhan through 30 tankers transporting it to the district daily until the new purification plant project was completed, but this did not last long, according to activist Hawkar Qadir.

He adds, “At the beginning of 2014, the activities of terrorist groups increased before ISIS emerged and took control of Nineveh, Salah al-Din, and parts of Kirkuk, and everyone became preoccupied with the dangers it posed to the region, so everything stopped!”

Hawkar confirms that the Turkish company was continuing to implement the project at that time, but preparations for the war against ISIS and the increasing dangers prevented its completion before reaching 50% progress.

He adds, striking his palms together, “And now, after ten years have passed, what had been built from that project has vanished, and everything must start anew, perhaps from scratch.”

The control of ISIS over areas in southern Kurdistan, including parts of Kirkuk and Diyala, and the war to liberate them were not the only reasons for the disruption of the water purification plant project in Darbandikhan, but also the economic crisis faced by the region after 2014 due to the decline in oil prices in the global market and the interruption of the region’s share of the federal budget as a result of disputes over independent oil sales from fields controlled by the Kurdistan government.

Participants in the repeated protests over the contamination of drinking water in the city of Darbandikhan have only received promises, even as the problem has worsened in recent years due to climate change and its accompanying drought, along with decreasing water supplies from the Sirwan River flowing from Iran to the point of nearly complete cessation on some days, and increasing pollution levels in the Tangro River.

The latest of these promises was made in March 2022, when the local government in Sulaymaniyah announced the referral of the Darbandikhan water purification project to a new company, the third in 12 years, and that the work would be monitored this time directly by the Deputy Prime Minister of the region, Qubad Talabani, who confirmed his commitment to fund the project with ten million dollars “to be obtained from the sale of state-owned properties,” according to Hawkar Qadir, who continues: “And the promise was never fulfilled.”

Dangerous Alternatives and Diseases 

For 16 years, the problem of water pollution in the Darbandikhan Lake has persisted, reaching the residents of the city without undergoing an effective purification process, forcing the locals to choose less contaminated water sourced from springs and artesian wells. 

However, these alternatives are not without health risks either, as they undergo no treatment before use, leading to numerous health issues and diseases, including those affecting the kidneys due to the lack of filtration from impurities, according to specialists. 

Azeema Sadiq (30 years old), a housewife from the center of Darbandikhan district, says she has been accustomed since childhood to using the water from the well dug by her father in their yard. After her marriage and moving to a house next to her family’s home, she continued to obtain water from the same well. 

She says with a smile, “It has been ten years since my marriage; every day I go to fetch water from my father’s well, and thank God it is only a few meters away. The tap water is not clean and is not even suitable for washing clothes.”

Azeema lives in a house next to her father’s in an area where most residents are poor or of average income, unable to afford drinking water, which costs several times more in the Kurdistan region than in other parts of Iraq. A 20-liter bottle of mineral water costs 1,750 dinars (more than $1.30), while in southern provinces it costs 500 dinars (38 cents).

Azeema uses her father’s well water for drinking and cooking for herself, her husband, and their four children, but this has led to health problems. Azeema points to the neighboring houses: “We all resort to unsterilized well water and sometimes even tap water, and the result is that we suffer from diseases, some of which are serious.”

She pauses for a moment before continuing with a tone of sadness: “The well and tap water caused my nine-year-old daughter to get sick; she suffers from kidney stones, and not a month goes by without her having an attack of pain in her sides. The doctor told us that contaminated water is the cause.”

Many of Azeema’s neighbors also mentioned having sick family members due to the water they have been consuming for years without treatment. Water-related diseases are widespread in the Darbandikhan area.

Dr. Hiwa Mohammed, a specialist in internal medicine, confirms that using contaminated water for drinking and cooking leads to several diseases, some of which are difficult to treat and some can be fatal.

He adds, “The cholera that appears from time to time here and in other areas of Sulaymaniyah is caused by contaminated water, in addition to typhoid, hepatitis, and kidney and cardiovascular disorders, which are common in areas with polluted water, even those relying on artesian wells as a source of drinking water.”

It is mentioned that several types of cancer can be caused by consuming contaminated water for extended periods, such as “stomach, liver, colon, and esophageal cancer, all of which are deadly and the most common in Darbandikhan.”

Dr. Hiwa believes that traditional purification methods, like boiling water before drinking, may eliminate biological contaminants such as bacteria and microbes, “but solid pollutants like chemicals and dust require more advanced and effective purification methods.”

According to a survey conducted by the “Campaign for the Right to Clean Water in Darbandikhan” in 2010, which included 119 families, 40% of the area’s residents used tap water for everything. Of these, 57% relied on artesian wells, 22% on springs, and 10% on tap water for drinking, despite 97% of them being unsure whether the water reaching their homes was clean.

Darbendikhan Dam Gate 

Civil activists believe that after 14 years since that survey, the percentage of people relying on tap water for drinking has doubled, due to the decline in groundwater levels in wells and springs as a result of climate change, including alterations in rainfall patterns. Additionally, the deterioration of the economic situation for citizens in the region in recent years, due to successive salary crises, has prevented many from being able to purchase bottled water. 

Khaled Hussein (40 years old), a taxi driver, is forced by his economic circumstances to drink water with his family from the water that reaches their home through the supply network. He attributes this to the lack of a well in or near his house, and the public wells and springs are very far from his home, and may not always have water available. 

He wonders, “What can we do? The prices of water in the markets are high and the economic situation is difficult; we have no choice but to use tap water, even though we know it is contaminated and threatens our health.”

Carcinogenic Materials 

Visitors to the Darbandikhan Lake can detect a pungent smell, and the same applies to the Diywana Lake designated for irrigating agricultural lands in the Darbandikhan district, as there are outlets for wastewater. 

According to two studies conducted at the University of Sulaymaniyah in 2022, the water in the Darbandikhan Dam contains carcinogenic materials, and the acidity levels in the dam water are high, in addition to the turbidity levels being much higher than the levels set by the World Health Organization. As for aluminum levels, they render the water unsuitable for drinking or irrigating crops. 

The two studies attributed the pollution to waste from nearby industrial areas and concluded that the water in the Darbandikhan Dam is only suitable for irrigating specific types of plants and for certain industrial purposes; while it is not suitable for drinking without high-level treatment. 

This indicates that “there is a need to implement a strategic plan with long-term management to maintain the water quality of the Darbandikhan Dam as one of the most important local water resources for the region’s residents.” 

Water strategy expert Hamza Ramadan confirms the findings of the studies, noting that water purification projects with outdated designs, and even some that are supposed to be implemented, are no longer suitable for the level of water pollution in the dams and lakes in Iraq due to water scarcity in recent years.

He says: “Classical purification does not change the quality of water as required, and we must move towards ceramic purification projects or more modern methods that prevent the leakage of carcinogenic heavy metals such as chromium and cadmium into household water.”

The investigation was carried out under the supervision of the “Nirij” network as part of the environmental journalism project managed by the Internews organization.