WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Iraq's majority Kurdish and potentially oil-rich area in the north has survived a summer of Cholera, but the region's health minister warns of more outbreaks.
"That is cleared now, it's almost cleared, we only have one case," said Abdul Rahman Osman Yones, minister of health for the Kurdistan Regional Government. "We're only discovering the cases because of intense surveillance we are taking at the moment."
Yones, speaking with United Press International in the KRG's Washington office during a stateside visit, said residents can rest easy now because Cholera germs can't survive the cold winter nights.
"That risk is gone now until next summer," he said.
Yones said his office confirmed about 4,500 cases of Cholera in the Kurdistan region, which is made up of three provinces in the north, as well as in Kirkuk. The Dohuk province was not affected, but there were about 1,250 cases in Sulaymaniya, a few hundred in Irbil and more than 3,000 in Kirkuk, he said.
He said there is an overall "lack of pure water supply to cities, dwellings, and not enough water purification systems."
Yones also said there was a lack of good sewage systems, and at times when residents were forced dig their own wells, the water wells would interact with latrine wells.
"The problem is still there, that's why I'm saying we might have the same next summer and the summer after unless it's properly sorted," he said.
"There are a few big projects going at the moment," including one in Sulaymaniya that is scheduled to be completed next May, he said.
The KRG is a relatively prosperous area of Iraq, with more economic development and little of the security violations compared with the rest of the country. Its government is moving forward, against the wishes of the central government, with signing oil deals with foreign oil firms and exploring and developing an oil sector of its own.
Nearly all of Iraq's 115 billion barrels of oil reserves fall outside of the KRG, though much of the country is underexplored. Kirkuk, however, contains around 15 billion barrels. It's a contentious area that Kurds claim as rightfully theirs, and they are pressing hard for a referendum to allow voters in Kirkuk to decide whether to join the region.
