Emblems of Sulaymaniyah's heritage
Sulaymaniyah’s oldest homes at risk of collapse
SULAYMANIYAH — Thousands of old houses in Sulaymaniyah are at risk of collapsing due to a lack of funds for their renovation, city officials said.
Approximately 10,000 old houses are spread across eight neighborhoods including Sabunkaran, Julakan, Shekhan and Malkandi, according to statistics provided by the city’s municipality to 964media. Many of these houses are at risk of imminent collapse.
Hussein Hama Ghareeb, head of Sulaymaniyah Municipality, said, “There are conflicts between heritage law and municipal law for the preservation of these buildings; currently, we are trying to address this issue.”
Ghareeb added, “Municipal laws allow for the renovation and retrofitting of buildings and their facades, but such provisions are absent in heritage laws.”
The municipality has an engineering committee that oversees the modernization of old buildings based on their designs and construction styles.
“Our biggest challenge is the budget,” Ghareeb said. “Such work requires funding, and we are unable to initiate and annually maintain or renovate these buildings without it.”
Sulaymaniyah, often referred to as Kurdistan’s cultural capital, was founded by Ibrahim Pasha, ruler of the Baban Principality, in 1784.
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