A province in dire strait: Sulaimaniyah gets the lion’s share of Kurdistan Region’s crises

PEREGRAF

Among modern and new restaurants, cafes, hotels, and malls opening every day, Sulaimaniyah province is in the thick of it with problems too many to count.

New neighborhoods have become hopeless waiting for basic services such as sewage systems, drain pipes, water, and electricity, some have provided these services with their own money, while others stay waiting.

Student protests rocked the streets last year demanding their monthly stipends. The province saw a series of other demonstrations in the previous years, some of which ended in tension and violence.

Parliamentarians have multiple times raised the issue of lands being occupied and sold by officials, while residents are struggling with water and electricity supplies, fuel and salaries, the province’s ruling party put the city through a state of chaos and worry with internal conflict as it heavily armed its streets.

One after another

"I’m 50 years old and there wasn’t a day that we didn’t have problems and crises, there is nothing left to test us with. It is either oil, salaries, or gas," Adil Ghazi, a resident from the province, told Peregraf.

Ghazi believes the people have caved in despite the burden placed on their shoulders. 

"Five years of salary crises, people were living in the most desperate situation. They now have to some extent improved salaries but created other crises," he said.

It often takes several weeks for all the ministries in the Kurdistan Region to receive their salaries. Pensioners in Sulaimaniyah went to the bank multiple times last month only to return empty-handed for they had not received their monthly stipends.

"It is true that some of the problems exist throughout Kurdistan, but it's much more in Sulaimaniyah. For example, we were looking for a propane gas bottle for 20 days, we were offering twice as much and we still didn't get it. Oil has not been distributed for two years. One barrel is worth 170,000 Iraqi dinars (IQDs), a liter of gasoline is 900 dinars. People's livelihoods are at its worst," Ghazi noted, adding that public electricity hours have been reduced.

"There are also issues with the cleaners and rubbish is about to fill the streets. This is really not the way to serve a nation," Ghazi said.

Problems with rubbish collection in the province are growing annually. The cleaning company has stopped working in two areas of the province due to a lack of payments.

The gas and fuel crisis are also one of the major crises in Sulaimaniyah, oil has not been distributed for two years in some areas. Recently, a propane crisis came up, although the province’s gas field, Khor Mor, provides for all the Kurdistan Region.

"The Kurdistan Region receives gas from Khor Mor field, but Chamchamal and Sulaimaniyah do not get any gas," Diman Raza, a member of the Sulaimaniyah Provincial Council told Peregraf.

The government in the past few years also introduced a meter system for water and electricity to reduce waste, when in some areas they are scarce and are not properly provided. People have protested and held campaigns to break the meters.

"Introducing water meters is to establish justice, but for example in a city like Chamchamal, people receive water every 15 days, how would the people agree to use water meters?" Raza said.

Caught in between

Wrya Abdulkhaliq, a civil activist, believes that "puppet masters and companies have controlled all aspects of people’s lives" in Sulaimaniyah, adding that authorities and companies that belong to people in power "have the ability to act above the governor and the governor cannot touch what is in their interests."

"Citizens need services and a decent life. The gas crisis has not yet been resolved, and the garbage crisis is taking place, adding to dozens of other crises. The government must save itself from administrative routines and impose its authority on companies so that they cannot fully take control of the services," Abdulkhaliq said.

He noted that the government in the Kurdistan Region capital of Erbil "does not treat the provinces the same way" and that "people in this area pay the price for political conflict between the political forces and people with influence."

Two major parties are ruling the Kurdistan Region and they have different areas of influence. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is dominant in Erbil and Duhok provinces, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) dominates Sulaimaniyah and Halabja provinces. Currently both are in political strife to win posts in Baghdad despite the problems at home.

Who is responsible?

The province of Sulaimaniyah has a population of more than 2.2 million people, according to Kurdistan Region’s statistics office. It is divided into 15 districts, 57 sub-districts, some of them are within the independent Garmiyan and Raparin administrations.

"Sulaimaniyah is neglected in terms of services and administration, and the most obvious reason for this situation is that all those who are senior government officials don’t live in Sulaimaniyah, they are not aware of the bad situation in this province," Sirwan Baban, a member of the Kurdistan Region parliament said.

"Some of the leaders are making themselves richer, serving their men and their own relatives have made them neglectful of others," Baban added.

The MP holds PUK responsible for the situation and is pessimistic about any improvement at the time being, saying that only "a group of loyal administrative officials" have helped the place keep standing.

Raza, the Sulaimaniyah council member, says the government is to blame for the crises in this area. She added that the province’s authority is "neutralized due to the lack of power given to local authorities in terms of administration and finance."

She, however, noted that the Kurdistan Region as a whole suffers from these problems but they are hushed. 

"People in this city demand their rights and they have always been front runners. There is more freedom in Sulaimaniyah, it might be more limited in other cities … Otherwise, there are problems in other cities too," she added.

"If this issue was in Erbil, they would have been paid from elsewhere and they would not allow the problem to be publicized like that," Raza said.

Peregraf contacted the Kurdistan Regional Government but they were not available for comments, and when contacted Sulaimaniyah governor Haval Abubakr for clarifications, he responded with two words in a text message: "sorry dear."