Wash Spring, a water source that cures illness?

Wash Spring, hot in winter and cold in summer, is a small spring located four kilometers to the east of Baz village in the Barzan area of the Kurdistan region.

The Wash Spring’s water source is the same all year round and continuously flows from high up in the Barzan area’s mountain range.

Despite being a small stream, there are groups of people filling up empty water containers there at most times of the day.

This is not due to a general lack of water, but rather that the quality of the water has started to attract people from all over the region for its purported health benefits.

Abdulaziz Rasheed Bazi, a villager from Baz in his 50’s, explained that locals have been using this spring since 1991.

“Like many Kurds, we were staying in Iran as refugees, fleeing the Saddam regime’s oppression, but in 1991 we turned back to our homeland, Kurdistan, and built houses close to this spring,” he said.

Villagers first noticed that the water was different after boiling it, seeing that it did not leave any limescale residue in the kettles, no matter how much they used it.

They also noticed that villagers gradually stopped complaining about kidney-related illnesses, and therefore quickly came to attribute special health benefits to the water.

“It is an old spring that has never dried up so far—even our grandparents were talking about how good and healthy it feels drinking it,” Abdulaziz added.

People from all over Kurdistan, from Khanaqin to Zakho, travel to the spring to drink its water and take bottles back with them.

Many patients with kidney stone problems have praised the water’s healing properties—some have purportedly even avoided surgery after drinking it.

Dilshad Sleman used to have an issue with kidney stones. He had to be rushed to the hospital several times due to unbearable pain, and his proscribed medicines did little to alleviate his condition. But after drinking water from the spring for around two months, he said he recovered. Following this revelation, he along with his family have been drinking from this spring for five years.

Mirza Shareef, director of the Baz village’s health center, said that unfortunately no official scientific research into the health benefits of Wash Spring’s water has been conducted, primarily due to its remote location.

Yet according to Shareef, time and experience have provided proof. He related that patients with documented kidney problems who had drunk from the spring improved their condition. It is also good for the skin and stomach, he added.

The number of minerals in a spring dictates the quality of the water. Some water springs have higher amounts of calcium, other springs have higher amounts of other minerals, and so on, so it is possible that Wash Spring is rich in certain specific elements, he explained.

Fluid intake and quality of water are factors that greatly affect the health of the human body—from kidneys to teeth and eyes.

Local authorities have repaired the road leading to the Wash Spring to keep it accessible for the many people seeking it out.

This is one of several springs in the region popular for providing reported health benefits. The Spee Spring in the Bargara area of Amedi is another such place, which is also waiting for researchers to scientifically examine its water’s qualities.