From dark to dawn

From 1991 until early in 2025, in the scorching summers and freezing winters, people in the Kurdistan Region had to struggle with the lack of electricity. In the absence of government-supplied power, neighborhood generators stepped in, offering limited voltage but unlimited noise and air pollution. This temporary fix remained in place for over three decades until the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) took a bold decision by launching the Runaki (Light) Project.

For Sahmya, a 71-year-old housewife living in Erbil, the struggle was part of daily life. For many like her, it was exhausting having to choose between running the air conditioner, the washing machine, or the TV. Exceeding the limit would trip the house’s circuit breaker, forcing her to walk to the end of the alley to reset it manually.

“Sometimes the circuit breaker would trip while the washing machine was running, leaving the clothes stuck inside,” Sahmya said. “That was during the hours when we had government-supplied electricity. When the generator was working, we couldn’t even use the washing machine.”

Since February of this year, however, the daily ordeal of Sahmya and 2 million other residents of the Kurdistan Region has come to an end. The Runaki Project has so far reached 450,000 households in over 150 neighborhoods across the major cities of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok, and Halabja.

Sahmya explained how the power limit and the frequent switching between government and generator electricity affected every moment of their lives. She had to stay half-awake at night to switch on the water pump when government power returned after midnight. 

“We had a 4-amp line from the neighborhood generator. During summer, we could only run one air cooler,” Sahmya explained, noting that when her grandchildren visited during the weekends, everyone had to sleep in the same room with the air cooler.

“We don’t have that problem anymore. But we still have to be careful with our consumption,” she added with a tone of relief, as she was now experiencing 24-hour electricity at home for the first time in 33 years.

Households are not the only beneficiaries of the project. Over 90,000 businesses have already been connected to the 24/7 power grid, with special incentives provided.

According to the project’s statistics released, a total of 2,107 neighborhood generators have been phased out so far, equivalent to 364,511 cars in terms of CO2 emissions. In other words, eliminating 30% of the region’s generators cuts 400,000 tons of CO2 annually, contributing significantly to a cleaner environment.

The full-day electricity provision, however, is not the only benefit that the people can perceive firsthand. It has also helped them financially. Thanks to the Runaki initiative, 80% of participating citizens now pay less for electricity than they did when they were paying separate bills for diesel neighborhood generators and the national grid.

Roads to connect

Since its inauguration in July 2019, the Ninth Cabinet of the KRG, headed by Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, has made economic diversification a central strategic goal. This effort aims to reduce the region’s reliance on oil revenues, which are often subject to disputes between Erbil and Baghdad.

To this end, the KRG has prioritized investing in some sectors, including tourism, agriculture, and industry. For all these to flourish, modernized road connections are vital. Therefore, the government has launched a massive plan to renovate existing roads and build new highways connecting major cities and rural areas alike.

One such highway connects Erbil to Duhok and extends to the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing – the region’s busiest and only official trade gateway to Turkey. This has improved trade routes and facilitated daily life for citizens including Dlovan, a resident of Erbil originally from Duhok.

For Dlovan, the highway is a blessing. He lost his mother two years ago and laid her to rest in Duhok. Every Thursday, as a personal ritual, he drives two hours to visit her grave before returning to Erbil the same night.

“I remember how it was before this new highway. Driving felt risky. The asphalt was damaged, the road was narrow, there were barely any signs, and no speed control – traveling between Erbil and Duhok used to be a real ordeal,” he told Kurdistan Chronicle.

“Now, driving on the highway is safe, easy, and smooth. I can actually enjoy chatting with my wife on the road because I feel secure.”

In its six-year tenure, the KRG’s Ninth Cabinet has completed 717 road projects, constructing 2,681 kilometers of road. These figures are remarkable, given that the total area of the Kurdistan Region is only 40,000 square kilometers.

Where there is water, there is life

In recent years, global warming has become an increasingly tangible crisis worldwide, and the Kurdistan Region is no exception.

Environmental scientists have already warned that Iraq is one of 19 global hotspots where freshwater levels have been depleted to dangerously low levels. In 2019, the UN Environment Program ranked Iraq as the fifth most vulnerable country in the world to “decreased water and food availability and extreme temperatures, which will negatively affect food security, water security, social security, and health security.”

While international efforts are afoot to prevent the situation from worsening, reversing the depletion of freshwater levels requires a greater collective commitment. This is why the Kurdistan Region has launched efforts to preserve this vital resource for future generations.

In line with this vision, the KRG has implemented comprehensive water management strategies: constructing dams, building ponds, reviving groundwater sources, and raising public awareness. 

According to official reports, the KRG has constructed nine dams with a total reservoir capacity of 252.8 million cubic meters. In areas where dams are not feasible, the KRG has built 23 new water ponds, totaling 126 across the region.

One major water project is the Gomaspan Dam, located 30 kilometers northeast of Erbil. With a capacity of 97 million cubic meters, it provides steady water supplies for a vast agricultural area in its surroundings, facilitating the expansion of agriculture and fish farming.

Osman Ibrahim, a farmer living in a village near the dam, expressed his satisfaction and relief in how the dam has eliminated many of the challenges he previously faced as a farmer.

“Lack of rainfall had caused most of the water resources to dry up. Villagers, farmers, and livestock owners had to buy water from mobile tankers,” Ibrahim explained. “But now, a year since the dam’s completion, all the springs are running again.”

Nabz Nadir, another local farmer, echoed a similar experience, noting that not only the surface water, but also the groundwater had decreased after several years of drought.

“We used to drill wells deeper than 300 meters without reaching the groundwater level,” Nadir pointed out. “But now, you might hit groundwater at 100 meters.”

However, while dams strategically tackle water scarcity, most people in urban areas do not feel their impact firsthand. For instance, Erbil, the largest and most densely populated city in the Kurdistan Region, faced water shortages for nearly three decades until a major project was announced last year.

The Erbil Emergency Water Supply Project, operational since July, channels water from the Great Zab River to a treatment facility on the outskirts of the city. The plant processes 480,000 cubic meters of water daily, enough to meet the needs of 1.5 million people. In other words, the project will cover 60% of the capital city’s demand, while the remaining 40% will be met by the three preexisting water treatment plants.

With a storage capacity of 300,000 cubic meters, the project will dispatch water through four different pipelines to at least 20 densely populated districts of Erbil. According to experts, the Erbil Emergency Water Supply Project will solve water supply challenges in the capital city for the next few decades. 

MyAccount for all

As part of its mission to create a brighter future for Kurdistanis, the KRG is implementing the MyAccount initiative to ensure financial inclusion across the region. This initiative provides public sector beneficiaries with access to modern banking services, enhancing personal financial security.

MyAccount has already begun onboarding KRG civil servants. Real-time salary notifications, ATM access, and internationally accepted debit cards are a few of the benefits that public servants are enjoying with MyAccount.

One beneficiary is Sirwa Faisal, an employee at the Kurdistan Parliament. Like nearly every other public servant, Sirwa used to wait long hours in line each month just to receive her salary in cash. But the exhausting queues weren’t the only challenge – she also had to collect her pay strictly within the limited working hours of her office’s accounting department.

“Now it’s different,” she told Kurdistan Chronicle after starting to receive her salary through MyAccount in April 2024. “Whenever the salaries are in our account, we can withdraw them from an ATM, day or night. There are no more queues.”

According to official statistics, 800,000 citizens have joined MyAccount, with half receiving their salaries through the digital system as of April this year. The government has also issued 450,000 bank debit cards under the program.

While change is never easy, public servants are adapting. In fact, those who are not yet enrolled are mostly eager to join, having witnessed its advantages and how it can enhance their financial wellbeing.

Jiyar Othman, a resident of Erbil, accompanies his mother to make sure she gets through the unruly crowd outside the bank safely. “While suffering from back and knee pain, my mother has to spend hours standing in a packed, chaotic crowd just to receive her pension.”

Jiyar is eagerly waiting for MyAccount to include retirees, so he can simply use the card to withdraw his mother’s pension without needing her to be physically present and experience the exhausting wait.

“Honestly, I wish the program had started by covering pensioners first, since many are elderly or have physical disabilities and yet have to stand in long queues every month, even if they are sick.”

Sardar Sattar is a translator and journalist based in the Kurdistan Region. He has translated several books and political literature into Kurdish and English. He writes regularly for local and international newspapers and journals.