Abandoned trash in Kurdistan tourist site causes strong reaction among residents

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Visitors from the central and southern parts of Iraq left large quantities of trash at a tourist site close to the Kurdistan Region’s capital, Erbil, causing strong reactions from residents. 

“Our teams have been cleaning Felaw Lake for a few days,” Halgurd Mohammed, Manager of Choman District Tourism Office, told Kurdistan 24. “Our teams collected six truckloads of trash left by tourists from the central and southern provinces of Iraq who visited the site during Eid.” 

“The site is now fully cleaned, and tourists continue to visit it,” he added. 

The Tourism Office of Choman assigned clean-up teams to stay on site, tidy up, and oversee the area. 

“I call on all tourists to keep the site clean and not to throw the trash in the lake and its surrounding areas,” said Mohammed. 

During the Eid al-Fitr days, many foreign and Iraqi tourists from central and southern Iraq visited tourist sites in Kurdistan Region, including Felaw Lake. The tourists left a mass of trash behind them in Felaw.

Photos of the beautiful Felaw lake filled with trash shocked residents of the Kurdistan Region and caused a wide reaction on social media.

In 2021, the Kurdistan Region’s authorities collected more than 600,000 tons of trash from public places in Erbil. The waste was disposed of at the Kani Qirzhala landfill. 

At the 2021 Middle-East Research Institute (MERI) forum late last October, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said that citizens and individuals are responsible for keeping the Kurdistan Region’s environment clean. 

“We cannot only rely on some companies to come and collect our waste,” he said. “We should know how to keep our air, land, and water clean, and I’m asking all of the citizens of Kurdistan to respect the environment.”