Kurdish-Turkish ties stronger than ever - Kurdish Globe

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The Kurdish Globe No. 349, Monday, April 23, 2012 4Erbil builds a second large parkGLOBE PHOTO/Ako MuhammedPark completion occurringone stage at a timeA large block of land near Bnaslawa used for grazing sheep willsoon become one of Erbil’s prime recreation areas.Four worker of Dosti company install electricity network in Hewar project, Bnaslawa, Erbil.Hassan Ali Kirkukiguards and feeds his flockof sheep inside a fencedinpasture; he takes themback to a settlement everynight and noon. He usesthis pasture temporarilybecause he will soon sellhis sheep all together,but he also knows thisfenced-in pasture nearBnaslawa and east ofErbil will soon becomeHewar Park, somethingthat will be "useful forthe neighborhood."The pasture will betransformed into a parkin several stages. Thecurrent fence covers520,000 square meters;thus, it will be the secouond largest park west ofErbil--eight times biggerthan Shanadar Park indowntown Erbil.Work is now ending onthe first part of HewarPark, which accounts for40% of the land. Bnaslauawa’s old and new roadssurround the park on bothsides and a dry streamsplits the park from thetown's residential areas.On the other side of thepark is a power station.From the inside gate,the park is divided intotwo by two main pathsthat will soon be aspuphalted. The executivecompanies, Dosti andthe Turkish EDA, arecurrently installing electutricity and irrigation netwuworks that are knee-levelunderground and deeperin some areas.Areas between the maintwo paths and upward tothe power station consusist of clean soil. Butdownward to the stream,the soil is mostly stone.Project supervisors don’tconsider the stony soila roadblock to growingflora.The shepherd Kirkukithinks that eucalyptustrees can survive in thearea. “The stony soilcould be much betterthan the red dirt," saysKirkuki, stressing theimportance of good irrigugation and fertilization.He owned an orchardin Shwan, near Kirkuk,before he was deportedto Bnaslawa in the late1980s. As for other treesthat are new in Kurdistutan--the same ones to beplanted in the park--heisn’t as sure of their usefufulness.The agricultural supervuvisor of the project, enginuneer Hawkar Dilshad, assusured that the stony soilwould not cause growthproblems since they--theDirectory of Erbil Parks--committed the execututive companies to addinga 25-centimeter layer ofclean soil to some limitedlocations inside the park.Another 15-centimeterlayer of agricultural sandmust be added to all ofthe land.These layers "will totutally solve the problemfor grasses that will beplanted," says the enginuneer. "As for the trees,they will be planted indigs that are also filledwith clean soil and fertiliuizers."Currently the addedlayers are less than 15 oreven 10 centimeters; insome places it is thickerthan standard. Head ofthe supervising commumittee, engineer HiwaAhmed, does not consideuer the thin layer as sometuthing that was overlookedby the companies, and henotes "the project hasn’tyet been completed."As planned, 600 eucucalyptus trees will beplanted around the park,according to informatution by the agriculturesupervisor. Melia Azedudarach will become themost frequent type with800 trees. Two-hundredBrachychiton Populeumtrees and 300 CuperssusArizonica trees will beplanted as well, mostlybeside the pathways.These types of trees, excucept for eucalyptus, arenot indigenous to Kurdiuistan Region; regardless,they have been used a lotrecently and have grownas expected during allfour seasons.Yards will becomegreen with Iranian andLebanese flowers as wellas lawn grass. The areabetween the two mainpaths will be planted withBermuda grass, which remumains green year-round.The cornerstone of thispark—which will havedetails like fountains andplay areas—was laid onDecember 27, 2010. Abudget of 2 billion Iraqidinars helped to compuplete the first stage inone year. Last year, anextra budget of 1 billion,400 million--as well aslengthening the durationfor completion--was suggugested for the project.Stage two has not yetbeen completed.Director of Erbil Parks,Nizar Omer, explains thedelay is mainly becauseof two electricity lines, a11 KV cable and a 33 KVcable, going under thepark to nearby power statutions. They caused a "bigproblem" for the sewauage and pathways, saysOmer. “We first didn’tknow they were there.We had twice announceda project to transformthose cables, but no compupany applied because thededicated budget was sosmall. We could only liftthem after the third attutempt.”After an extension oftwo months, the companuny has asked for anotherthree months in order tocompensate for lost time.But basic work of the firststage including asphaltiuing walkways will endin two or three months,says Hiwa. Constructionof the park office, its gateand water storage is alruready underway.Planting will start inOctober, says Omer, whohopes for the park to be atleast partially opened forvisitors early next year."Hewar Park creates abalance of green areas inErbil. The big [Sami Abdudulrahman] park is locateued in the west and someother parks have beenbuilt downtown; thus,Erbil was in need of sucha big park in its easternsection," says Omer.The directory is currurently working on twoother "important" projeuects—a park on 40,000square meters in Badawa,also in eastern Erbil, andrenovation of GilkandPark next to Erbil Internunational Hotel in the citycenter.Thanks to the efforts ofthis directory, the rate ofgreen land in Erbil reacheues 6.5 percent, but theyaim for more. Increasiuing green lands is not thegovernment's responsibubility alone, says Omer.People must raise treestoo. "Home-building licucenses should contain acondition that 10 to 15square meters of gardensmust be built with houseues that are built on 200square meters," suggestsOmer, who believes thateven two trees in everyhouse can effectively incucrease the green rate.Ako MuhammedErbilako.kurdishglobe@gmail.com
The Kurdish Globe No. 349, Monday, April 23, 2012 5Despite difficulties Darbandikhan Damcontinues to lit KurdistanGLOBE PHOTO/Aiyob MawloodiPROFILE- Constructed in1983, but due to GulfWars of the 1980s and1990s, work was halteued on the dam severaltimes. This has led tofrequent failures andtechnical problems.- Consists of threeturbines and powergeneration units witha capacity of 83 megawuwatts each.- The media has veryrarely addressed technunical issues and challulenges of the team.This photo depicts the Darbandikhan Power Station on the Darbandikhan Dam, south of Suleimaniya, March 14th.World Bank allocates 20 million USD to renovate the damTelling the story of theDarbandikhan Dam andits power station, a statution senior staff memberspeaking on the conditution of anonymity saysthat the project was tendudered to the JapaneseMitsubishi Corporationin the early 1980s. “Thetotal budget allocatedfor the project was $3.6billion; however, dueto some technical issusues, the budget wasdecreased later.” Andstation management belulieves that some of thetechnical issues the statution currently faces aredue to that budget cut.During the constructution period, work washeld up several timesdue to war and unrest inthe country. MitsubishiCorp., the developer ofthe project, finally compupletely abandoned theproject and left the countutry in 1990 when theIraqi regime began theGulf War and a numberof the company’s staffwere detained. Afterthat, the company neverreturned to complete theunfinished job, even desuspite UNDPs efforts topersuade them. Mitsubisushi Corp. told UNDP thatdue to the loans owed tothe company by the Iraqigovernment, they wouldnot do that.Samad Yassin, the statution director, said in aninterview with the Globethat his team had to usewhatever skills andequipment they retainedfrom the company tofinish the project in anyway possible, and thanksto their commitment,skills and hard work, thestation is now runningdespite technical issuesand difficulties they facein sourcing spare parts.Recently, the WorldBank allocated some$40 million to renovateboth the Darbandikhanand Dokan dams. Thefunds are spent throughthe Kurdistan RegionalGovernment’s Ministryof Electricity to contractutors.“At the first phase, anItalian company wascontracted to repair andchange some parts of thestation that were obsolulete,” said Yassin as hewatched one of the unitsoperate loudly at fullcapacity. “One of thegood things they havedone was to change themanagement and controlsystem to a computeriuized system. A secondtender was given to acompany to renovate thedistribution network ofthe station.”Explaining that thecompany is about to begugin work on the networkssoon, Yassin complainedthat the budget allocatedfor the Darbandikhanstation is insufficient.“While Darbandikhan[station] has three unitsand Dokan [station] hastwo, the budget is equalluly shared between thetwo, which is not fair.”Yassin also explainedto the Globe that theyused to have an issue ofwaste of voltage, whichthey overcame by installiuing a syncro-condensersystem, which stabilizesthe voltage while savingwater: “It works on itsown without water.”Yassin, who has workedthere for 15 years, expuplained: “In the past wewere feeding 132 voltsto Kalar, but the townwas receiving only 125-128 volts, which was insusufficient.”According to Yassin,their local techniciansinstalled the syncro-condudenser system on theirown, which means thatthey have technicianswho deserve respect--and the Kurdish peopleshould respect their hardwork.However, Hussein Qadudir, another staff membuber at the station witha quarter century of expuperience there, says thatpeople do not think ofthem this way. “Governmument does not care aboutus, so what should weexpect from people?”asked Qadir. “They onlycare how many hours thestation generates power,and whenever there isa failure and the stationstops production, theyimmediately call and askabout the problem withouout thinking about thepeople behind this andthe efforts spent by theunselfish staff here.”The director and staffof the station compuplained that the ministutry does not care abouttheir lives, health orsafety, and does not listuten to their demands.Nevertheless, they stillchoose to do their bestto provide a maximumamount of power supplyto the people and havenever threatened to stopthe system or hold geneueration to force the miniuistry to respond to theirdemands.One other issue thatYassin complained aboutwas the excess numberof staff he has for theduties at the station. Heargues that he has morethan double the numberof staff he actually needsto run the station. With158 staff members in hispayroll. “Another issueis a number of our staffare women who are notfit for the harsh situatution and heavy technicalduties the station demumands.”Aiyob MawloodiErbilaiyob.kurdishglobe@gmail.com
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Kurdish-Turkish ties stronger than ever - Kurdish Globe

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