One dead, four injured in soil collapse at Erbil water project site

ERBIL — One person was killed and four others injured after being trapped under soil during excavation work at a Water Service Project site in Erbil, according to Civil Defense spokesperson Shakhawan Saeed.

Saeed told 964media that five workers were buried when soil collapsed during digging operations. Civil defense teams pulled them from the debris and transported them to Erbil’s Western Emergency Hospital.

One of the victims, identified as a project engineer, died from injuries sustained in the incident. The four others remain under medical observation, while the body of the deceased was transferred to the forensic medicine department.

The incident adds to a series of recent workplace fatalities in the Kurdistan Region. In late April, a worker died after falling from the fourth floor of a housing project in Sulaymaniyah. Earlier that month, two electricity workers were killed and another injured in separate electrocution incidents in Duhok and Erbil.

The Kurdistan Construction Workers’ Organization reported at least 17 construction-related deaths in Sulaymaniyah between January and August 2024, along with nine in Erbil and eight in Garmian. The group cited widespread safety lapses, including a lack of protective equipment, inadequate training, and poor enforcement of safety standards. Common causes of death included falls, electrocution, structural collapses, machinery accidents, and uncontrolled bleeding.