Kurdistan authorities warn of more flooding in Kalar as river level rises

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – After days of heavy ongoing rainfall in the Kurdistan Region, authorities in the city of Kalar on Saturday warned the public of potential danger caused by rising water levels in the Sirwan River.

“Due to the heavy rain and flow of water into the Sirwan River from Darbandikhan, the water level of the river has increased and is expected to rise even more,” Kalar Mayor Shahab Haji Ahmed said in a statement.

He urged residents living close to the river to immediately call the 115 emergency response number if their lives are at risk so that teams could be dispatched to assist them.

On Friday, 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.

The 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