Shafaq News – Al-Sulaymaniyah / Erbil
Flood compensation payments in Al-Sulaymaniyah’s Chamchamal district have exceeded 13 billion Iraqi dinars ($9.9M) as authorities begin distributing funds to hundreds of families affected by the recent flash floods that hit Kurdistan Region.
At a press conference on Monday, Atta Mohammed, head of the Kurdish deputy prime minister’s office, explained that beneficiaries are processed in an orderly sequence. Recipients first submit a compensation form along with a national ID, then meet an accounting team that provides a copy of the approved form and a compensation check. They can then proceed directly to the bank to withdraw the funds on the same day.
“A total of 639 families are receiving compensation in the first phase,” Mohammed noted, adding that the bank will remain open until midnight to ensure all eligible recipients collect their payments.
Individual compensation amounts range from 400,000 dinars ($300) to 4.95 million dinars ($3,760), based on the level of damage as determined by specialized assessment committees.
The payments follow severe weather earlier this month, when record rainfall triggered flash floods across Al-Sulaymaniyah province, damaging homes, cutting roads, and prompting extensive emergency responses. The storms resulted in multiple deaths and injuries in Chamchamal and Garmian districts.
Seperately, the Erbil Public Library on Monday launched a
campaign to collect books for the Chamchamal library, which also suffered heavy
damage during the floods.
Speaking to Shafaq News, Naz Falakuddin Kakeyi, director of the Erbil Public Library, urged writers, readers, and cultural enthusiasts to participate, describing the campaign as essential for restoring the library’s collection and maintaining community access to knowledge.
“The initiative gathered 10,000 books in Kurdish, Arabic, and English, covering a wide range of subjects,” she added, noting that the Chamchamal library’s shelves and rooms sustained significant damage, underscoring the urgency of the rebuilding effort.