Latest floods in Kurdistan kill teen, damage IDP camp, close roads

The latest floods caused by yet another bout of rainfall in the Kurdistan Region have resulted in the death of a teen, shut down multiple roads linking cities...

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The latest floods caused by yet another bout of rainfall in the Kurdistan Region have resulted in the death of a teen, shut down multiple roads linking cities, and caused substantial damage to a camp for displaced persons and to local infrastructure in several areas.

A sixteen-year-old ethnically Arab girl drowned after being swept away by a flood in the village of Kawla, located in the Chamchamal district of Sulaimani. According to a statement released by the city's police department, the incident took place at approximately 5:30 in the evening.

In southern Sulaimani Province, a bridge on a road linking the cities of Kalar and Darbandikhan collapsed, halting all intra-city traffic, local police said. Darbandikhan authorities later announced that all public kindergartens, primary schools, and middle schools would be closed.

Rising water levels south of Duhok Province's Bardarash district also shut down at least one road. Floods washed away a number of cars according to early reports, though none suggested casualties. 

Another flood hit a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the province of Erbil, rushing into residents' tents and further straining their already-tenuous living conditions. 

"There is immediate need for help to support over 700 IDPs affected," Kurdistan Region's Joint Crisis Coordination Centre (JCC) said in a social media post.

In the past two weeks, cities in Iraq and Kurdistan Region have witnessed multiple spells of heavy rainfall followed by major floods that led to the deaths of several citizens.

Post-rain floods are a perennial issue in the country as a whole, caused in large part by chronically inadequate infrastructure, including inefficient or poorly-maintained urban rainwater management and sewage systems.

Editing by John J. Catherine