A four-member team of environmental and air experts is researching air pollution levels in Erbil at 200 stations in the city at two different times in the morning and at night.
The team wants to find the amount of carbon dioxide, toxic gases, and suspended solids in the air with up-to-date technology, to explore air conditions in Erbil, according to Dr. Hedi Jamal, a university professor and air expert who lives in Europe and returned to Kurdistan Region of Iraq KRI for the research.
"The main purpose of this study is to reveal the true situation of air pollution in Erbil," Jamal told KirkukNow "We want to know what the impact of the factories and refineries is on the city."
The team consists of four members. Jamal, who supervises them, needs 30 days to reach their conclusions.
“This is the first time such advanced equipment is used to investigate level of air pollution in Erbil.”
Beside hundreds of factories and refineries that affect air pollution, there are more than 1,100 private generators in the center of Erbil alone to provide electricity to neighborhoods, in addition to hundreds of generators in public places, offices and companies.
There are over two million vehicles in the IKR, which directly affects air.
According to United Nations UN statistics and warnings, Iraq ranks fifth among the countries most affected by climate change, like the risks of water scarcity, drought, high temperatures, pollution, and other natural disasters.
More than 20,000 people have been forced to flee Iraq by the end of 2021 due to water shortages, according to the UN. Iraq annually burns 17 billion cubic meters of associated natural gas when drilling for oil, according to an energy expert.
Dilshad Miran, director of the Erbil Environmental Office, told KirkukNow that there is no air pollution in Erbil.
According to the 2018 statistics of the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG, 1.1 million people live in the center of Erbil. The greenery rate in the city is approximately above 15 percent, matching international standards.
This is the first international research on air conditions in Erbil to be published at the end of October this year.
This material was produced as part of the Expanding Role of Women in Covering Environmental Issues program by KirkukNow with the support and funding of the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.
