On Sunday, July 21, 2019, a group of Earthquake Stricken people held a protest gathering at the entrance and outskirts of the city of Sarpol-e Zahab in response to water and electricity disconnection.
Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) has been informed by sources in Sarpol-e Zahab that this gatherings, held in both the afternoon and midnight, led to violence after the police forces intervened. Another protest gathering was supposed to be held on Monday, July 22, 2019, but the gatherers received warnings from security agencies a day before.
“Last month, municipality of Sarpol-e Zahab warned people living in the emergency shelters since the earthquake of November 2017 that they should evacuate the shelters and they were informed that they may be transferred to another location. Some residents had promised the municipality authorities to evacuate the shelters and the repeated water and electricity disconnections over the past days seem to have aimed at putting more pressure on these residents to evacuate the shelters.“, a reliable source told KHRN.
In an interview with the local news agencies about the protests, the governor of Sarpol-e Zahaband announced that the municipality had given ten days to residents to evacuate the shelters.
“Given that over 17,000 properties have been either re-built or repaird in this city, people are expected to leave the shelters and return to their homes.”, Mohabbat Jamalinia (the governor) added.
Meanwhile, according to sources in the region, earthquake-stricken people say that the reconstruction of damaged homes has not yet come to an end. They also mention the increasing rate of inflation, the inability to repay loans and the rise in prices for construction materials in recent months, among other reasons, for failing to rebuild their damaged homes.
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