A youth cleaning and afforestation campaign on Mount Zawa in Dohuk Northern Province provides job opportunities for hundreds of residents and transformed the area from a barren landfill into an attractive tourist site. Some of the kiosks on the mountain were also decorated with recycled materials.
The campaign began in 2017 with the participation of dozens of young people, and after seven years the fruits of the campaign have become the subject of praise from tourists, residents of the region and the government.
Mount Zawa is located southwest of Dohuk city, 16 km high and its area, which has now become a tourist site, is 42 square kilometers. It is one of the most famous mountains in the region overlooking Dohuk city as well as the Nineveh Plain.
The mountain cleaning campaign took 10 days, at a time when most tourist areas in the Kurdistan Region are at risk of pollution due to the lack of awareness of tourists and the random dumping of waste, including plastic waste.
The story began here: Cleaning and afforestation
Darian Ali, 33, was among the volunteers who participated in the Zawa Mountain cleaning campaign, and now runs a restaurant there. Darian says that their campaign lasted for 10 days in cooperation with a local company. "It was a youth idea to care about the tourism sector and maintain the cleanliness of the environment."
"The company was specialized in recycling, we agreed with it to collect the waste, and it would take over transporting and recycling it," Darian pointed out. "We collected everything we found of glass, plastic, nylon and other waste."
Hakar Rekan, 28, director of the Yek Dar (One Tree) organization, also participated in the campaign. "25 young men launched the campaign, after finishing cleaning the mountain, I thought of starting to afforestation the area through one of the organizations."
For this purpose, Rekan and a number of his colleagues founded the Yek Dar organization at that time.
“We decided to announce the afforestation campaign to garner support.”
After hearing about the afforestation campaign, a Peshmerga commander decided to help the team by providing 550 seedlings.
A number of students from the University of Dohuk decided to participate in planting seedlings, and expanded the number of volunteers, Rekan added.
The campaign was launched in the winter because, according to Hekar, the campaign team took into consideration the difficulty of securing water for irrigation, so they chose the winter season.
Oak, Pine and Chinaberry trees are the three species chosen to be planted on the mountain. "Because the mountain is rocky and lacks water, we chose these trees that need a small amount of water to grow," Rekan says.
The trees have completed their second year and most of them have passed the danger stage and are growing well.
The team is expanding and the mountain provides job opportunities
The team led by Rekan through the "Yek Dar" organization now includes 200 young men and women whose mission is to combine afforestation and cleaning.
The team obtained a permit from the Nineveh Province Administration to establish a forest at the foot of Mount Zawa. The campaign is in its first phase and is scheduled to be completed within four years.
According to data from the Duhok Municipality, the percentage of greenery in the city is 18%, which is less than the international standard that requires no less than 30%.
Former Director General of Dohuk Environment, Mohammed Taher Brefkani, said that "Mount Zawa was suffering from neglect before the team started working, except for this team, no one adopted the idea of returning the mountain to the environment in terms of afforestation, cleaning and recycling waste... We are indebted to these volunteers."
Ali Tatar, Dohuk Governor, said that "the team's work and activities are a source of pride, they contributed to creating job opportunities for many young people."
There are currently no less than 25 restaurants and 200 kiosks on the mountain, providing job opportunities for hundreds of young people, including Darian Ali, who now owns a restaurant on the mountain after participating in the cleaning campaign.
Ali (33 years old) is a university graduate, married and a father of three children. Before the initiative was launched, he worked in a restaurant in Dohuk city and says that his income did not meet his family's needs.
"When we started the campaign, we took a pledge from the municipality to allow us to establish restaurants on the mountain after cleaning and taking care of it. Now I run my own restaurant there."
He made flower pots out of car tires, and tires are also used as ladders due to the mountain's ruggedness.
"Thank God, I now own a house because of this mountain... I am happy with the result I have reached, this place has now become a wonderful and attractive place... We preserve the environment and at the same time secure our livelihood."
Halbin Shaaban, a 45-year-old woman, whose husband was injured during the ISIS war and is now unable to work. She opened a café on the mountain to support her six daughters.
"We could not live on my husband's salary of 600,000 dinars, and salaries are often delayed. The team suggested that I open a café on the mountain," Shaaban added. "I work here every day from 2 pm until midnight."
Halbin, like other shop owners on the mountain, reuses some waste such as tires, iron and barrels. "I think some tourists who visit Mount Zawa come to see the things we have reused."
Ammar Anwar, a tourist from Mosul, said, "This place is very beautiful. We come here most Thursdays and Fridays, and on winter nights we come to eat the delicious food they prepare... This is a beautiful idea."
Eco-friendly lighting
The shop owners - some of whom are young men who participated in the mountain cleaning campaign - do not have national electricity or private generators, but rather rely on solar energy systems.
The colored lights add an attractive view to the mountain, and most importantly, "the electricity generation system is environmentally friendly and uses solar energy that is stored during the daytime hours," according to Darian
“The electricity is eco-friendly and we all make use of sun energy,” Ali said.
The Director General of Duhok Environment says, "I noticed that they get electricity from solar energy, this is a happy thing because it is environmentally friendly and saves them from the need for the government to provide them with electricity."
At the same time, one of the investors oversees the back of the mountain, and he has provided the area with national electricity.
According to statistics from the Duhok Administration, about 250,000 people visit Mount Zawa annually, including Arab and Turks.
Ismail Mustafa, the media officer of Duhok Municipality, said that "this success is the result of the initiative launched by these young men."
Narin Omar (25 years old), a visitor to Mount Zawa, said, "Here you realize the importance of not throwing everything away. The things that are reused here give a unique beauty, everything here is environmentally friendly, the tools, the equipment, the air and even the electricity."
"They are making a name for the government"
The Governor of Duhok says the message is that it is not necessary to spend a lot of money to accomplish some work, but rather it is possible to attract people's attention and achieve success in the simplest ways.
"We must benefit from the idea of these young men in transforming Mount Zawa into what we see now," he added. "I am amazed by their idea. As a local government, we do not impose any taxes or monthly rent on shop owners because it gives a special beauty to the city of Dohuk, in terms of cleaning and planting the mountain."
The Director of Dohuk Environment Department says that the team asked for their help in taking care of the trees and seedlings that the team plants.
In 2022, Dohuk Municipality deployed a number of waste containers on Mount Zawa to maintain the cleanliness of its environment.
"We send the municipality's waste collection vehicles daily," Mustafa said. "In Zawa, we learn to preserve the environment. This mountain is an awareness lesson about the environmental issue. In turn, we spread awareness among tourists through warning signs."
The efforts of these young people to plant trees on the mountain come at a time when the percentage of buildings and residential units inside the city is increasing.
The initiative faces some obstacles, including the lack of paving parts of the mountain, which hinders the movement of tourists and shop owners.
In this regard, the governor of Duhok said, "It is true that the streets leading to the foot of the mountain are not all paved, but this small idea has had great results... This project has told us that it is not necessary for the projects that cities are famous for to be government projects."
Some volunteers told (KirkukNow) that they do not know how the government will deal with shop owners on Mount Zawa in the future, and whether it will impose taxes or rents on them, considering this one of the challenges they face.
Ali, who runs a restaurant on the mountain, mentioned the electricity problem as one of the obstacles because solar energy does not meet their needs.
The government has also not contributed to securing water for the area, but volunteers rely on the assistance provided by some in this regard.
"Another challenge facing volunteers is their inability to expand the area and the government does not have any plans," according to the owner of one of the shops. For his part, the governor of Duhok stressed that there are no immediate plans of this kind.
While protecting the environment and increasing the percentage of green spaces is a priority for the young volunteers, some of the seating areas are covered with nylon, which is considered an enemy of the environment.
Former Director General of Dohuk Environment said that the efforts of these young people to plant trees in the mountain come at a time when the percentage of buildings and residential units within the city is increasing, which leads to a reduction in green spaces and an increase in temperature rates, "due to the increase in concrete areas within the city."
