Cleaning Up Kurdistan
Kurdishaspect.com - By Werner Nijman
When driving from Suleymaniya to Erbil you have to go through the town of Koya, which is about half-way the distance.
Coming from Suleymaniya you will first pass the university and some newly built authority buildings. Then going into the town itself there is a round-about that one has to negotiate. Half way into the round-about there is a wall on the right hand side with a slogan painted on it. The slogan reads: "Envirenment, Clean Liness Reflexes the Level of Nation's Culture..." (Spelling as it is painted).
A very good statement, and normally one should take note of a slogan like this, was it not for the mountain of rubbish, piled up underneath the painted wall.
Unfortunately, this can be seen all over the region of Kurdistan, Mountains of rubbish everywhere.
It will not be unusual; driving behind a car on one of the main roads, when suddenly an empty (or half full) bottle or can is thrown out of one of the windows. Often followed by a few more of the same, and some empty crisp wrappers. And none of the people in the car would think twice about emptying their rubbish outside the car while driving.
Kurdistan is a beautiful country, and the nature is often stunning. Great Mountain views, Fantastic rock formations, incredible valleys with glowing hills covered in all of shades of green. Mountains that appear to have been pushed up on one side, while the other side is like a meadow. Rivers and streams finding their ways in between the mountains, like ribbons of silver. Sometimes one can look up to high vertical mountainside that takes away all breath as they tower above the road.
There are some a growing number of picnic places prepared by one of the ministries to give people a chance to enjoy their free-times in the surroundings of beautiful sceneries.
Picnic areas can be found at the end of roads, giving entrance to virgin nature, or high on the side of mountains, giving breathtaking views of the valleys below and the mountains on the other sides. One can stand in awe for minutes or just enjoy the view for hours, while relaxing with a kebab.
However, the story of natural beauty stops here. When one takes some steps to the perimeter of the picnic spot, and takes a look down the side of the mountain sloop, river bank, or meadow, one will be shocked to see a sea of empty bottles, beer cans, coca cola cans, water bottles, wrappers from sweets or all kinds of packaging, plastics, glass, metals, etc.
If you wouldn't know better, and try to ignore the far side of the view, you could think you would be in the middle of a rubbish dump. Rubbish everywhere.
Then look around, and it will not be long before you will see someone walk to the side of the picnic area with an arm load of empty bottles, and just throw these over the side. Or, the people that sit closer by the edge will just throw their rubbish away immediately upon finishing its contents.
No-one thinks twice about polluting the nature of Kurdistan.
Once we approached a person, while s/he was sweeping a picnic spot, but while doing so, swept all the rubbish in the river, a couple of feet away. On asking why he did so; the surprised reply came "the rubbish goes away this way, doesn't it???" No idea whatsoever about what s/he just did. And this is the general thinking of many.
Once we asked some people why they throw rubbish away like they do, the answer given: “this is because of Saddam Hussein”? 17 years after the overthrow of Saddam in these regions, they now blame Saddam for throwing rubbish over the edge from newly created picnic areas?
It is time that the people living in Kurdistan start living up to the slogan that I started this piece of writing with: “cleanliness reflexes the Level of the Culture”. Do we want to be known as a culture of those that destroy the nature that we so much love?
Let us grow up, and start with our families, not to throw rubbish into nature, but in rubbish bags, and take them home, to make sure that the rubbish collectors will take these to where they belong, which is NOT in the nature.
Let’s start protecting Kurdistan, and stop destroying it with our wrappers, glass, cans, etc. and show the international tourists whom are visiting our nation that we love our country, and are proud of how we care for our nature.
If we are not careful, the Kurds may win political battles, independence etc, but will have no country to live in, as we might have made it inhabitable.
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December 7, 2008
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