Shouting for Rivers: Waterkeepers Iraq-Kurdistan

WEBVTT
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You have been working in the field of climate change at least for the last 16 years since 2010.
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And I've heard your name, I've seen your work, your activities, and your main concern is water.
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That's why your specialty is water.
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Why is water so important to you we I think we wouldn't be here if there was no water.
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What makes our blue planet special, different to any other planet we have, or star and uh is water.
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So we're here because of water.
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So water is a life not just for the human but for all plants, creatures, insects, we all rely on this element and is a lifeline, it's a blood, and we should see it as a blood because without this beautiful lifeline, we cannot continue.
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We cannot actually be here.
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We cannot.
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In psychology they say the 15-10 years of your life, soon as you're born, that will be the base for entire life in the end.
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So I was born next to the river, very close to this river.
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You mean this river?
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Yes, this is downstream.
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We call it Serchnar, and there was a state, the sugar factory state.
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My dad used to work in a sugar factory, and there was a state for the older workers, and that's where I was born, right next to the river.
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There was that the last house of the state, uh Chakrakamp here.
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So um I was born in 1976 there, and I grew up with a river.
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With this, what's the name of this river?
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This river upstream we call it Sechna River.
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But if you call it here, we call it Chakchak.
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If you go upstream, Kani, Spiko, Kani, Kurdino.
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So this water is coming from all the snow juice from the mountain of Pira Magrun.
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So Piramagrun Mountain Range starts from here all the way to Pira Magrun is 45 kilometers.
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So this mountain range is grappling this beautiful snow and rain and filter it clean, coming down.
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What we do with it, look at the state of it, is heartbreaking.
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And you told me a minute ago that this used to run throughout the year.
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Now it has become seasonal.
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It dries up in a month or two.
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What's the cause of the a river that has been flowing for thousands of years to suddenly stop?
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Exactly.
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Um climate change is one of the main things.
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Uh uh, that's something is global, and and we all pay a huge price for this uh as a human.
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And of course, the lack of managing the water and war.
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I was born in 1976.
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I was in the war, and still we are in a war.
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So when any nations, when you're in a war, obviously the last thing you would think about is nature and you live very temporary lifestyle, and you just want to survive basically, daily survival and survival.
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And of course, when you in the war, you create in the traumatic nation.
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So we all traumatize by uh living temporarily and not having a safe life and uh uh clean water.
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So slowly, slowly, Iraq, we're going toward desertification.
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There's so many reasons.
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The main ones I I would say managing the luck of all these dirty businesses, and um we try to catch up with Europe, and which is all this wrongdoing just because we wanna have a better life and we're neglecting our nature, without the nature we we cannot continue.
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So we came from nature.
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And all the fighting in Kurdistan, years of fighting against Iraq, against other armies, was for the sake of this land.
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Because this Kurdistan is a country with mountains, with rivers.
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So if you don't take care of your environment, what did you fight for?
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Exactly.
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That's why my concern in the last 15 years being a waterkeeper, what is the water keeper?
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We we I know that's the sound of water, but if he abuse the water, cannot shout.
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So we shout for river.
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We're here to witness to tell the new generation what the state of our river used to be looked like.
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It wasn't seasonal.
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I was catching fish in the middle of the summer from this river downstream.
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So where we are sitting now used to be a nice flowing river with trees.
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Absolutely, absolutely, all the way up there.
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And no way you could actually cross the river, no way.
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But so the river was functioning perfectly, suitable for fishing, for drinking, and for swimming.
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So we this three important points you have to find it in a free-flowing river.
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If you lose one point of it, you cannot call it sweet water, you cannot call it um, for example, uh drinkable uh water.
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So when I was a kid, I was like spending all my day, I was taking care of some ships and finding herbs eatable, catching fish eatable, when the plane used to attack uh Iranian.
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We were I was born in the in the war.
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I was six years old, uh, four years old, Iraq and Iran war started.
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So this river was my savior because we used to have a shelter.
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Wow when the sirens came, we used to go to the stream and hide ourselves in a shelter.
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Sometimes we used to we used to spend two weeks in a shelter because it was so much bombardment.
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It was home for me.
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It was home, foods, everything.
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And my childhood, as you see, I have a different lifestyle because of this river.
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So I love animals and I want my river back.
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I want um I I want to tell my story to the new generation.
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Um there is no society, no um whatever we decided to actually make um life as a as a society, as a uh nation, first we had to find a river or water.
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So when Kurdish we call it Au Awadani.
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So Sleimani, we decided to do, for example, 300 years ago, 250 years ago, we decided to make a life in here because of this river, because of Kanakawa River, Chemi Kanakawa, it was a stream, and of course all the cares, water, which is is this very special.
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Um yeah, as you see how they destroying and dumping.
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Uh I'm talking to you, but I my attention to it.
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You see it live.
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That's a criminal.
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That's that's that's a crime.
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So I call these people, they don't have any sensation.
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Let's wait until we completely lose it.
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Yes.
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And after human losses, you worry as waterkeepers of Iraq.
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You this river has decreased, it will stop it through the summer.
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Do you worry that it might happen to many other rivers and streams that we don't even know about in Kurdistan?
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Absolutely.
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I think that's the case.
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Absolutely.
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And and because the way we manage in it, the way we see it, even in the city, if you look when the water is coming back to the householders, it becomes uh like a water carnival, you know, everybody washings.
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We we don't see it as a blood.
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We don't see it until we lose it.
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So you think despite all these uh concerns, people still waste water?
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Absolutely.
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Householders, so we're all in the same boat.
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The government stakeholders, they are really bad with managing surface water, underground water, fresh water, and sanitation like urban waste.
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Um we don't take care of the heavy water like sewage.
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Iraq, we are 19 cities.
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We don't have a sewage facility treatment plant for turning black water, blind dirty water, sewage to clean water.
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So, what we do with it, we dump it to the fresh water or surface water or underground water.
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We don't filter any.
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And all this chemical we use, they all go to the lands and rivers.
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This river you see is very clean here.
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Just tiny, but you go downstream, you will see.
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I will show you later on where all the sewage started.
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So all the way to Halabjah near Darbanikan, we have a we did survey on this river.
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We did from uh Hanarani Saru, uh upper Hanaran village, all the way to Jardasna, to Darbanikan.
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I don't know, there is a report, there is a data on our website.
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We counted all the threats.
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What is the threat for the river?
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This is the threat.
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Tomorrow, when they finish, the householders, they sewage, it will go directly to here.
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Oh, that's very true, yeah.
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Absolutely.
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We don't filter nothing.
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We have a pipeline sewage, but where it goes, that's our special.
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The pipeline is only close to the houses.
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Exactly.
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After that is no unprogramming.
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Me and my dog, we are special for tackling and chasing all this sewage.
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We've been trained how to find all these threats.
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We specialize.
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That's why we by finding all this threats, that's the voice.
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Yeah.
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So that voice is low now.
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But hopefully, we are working on new generation to become water keeper, become a mountain keeper, become a forest keeper, become a cavekeeper.
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Because without all this beautiful nature, natural elements, we nothing.
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We know we shouldn't even be here.
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Yeah, that's a question.
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Do you have other people to work with you?
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Do you see other young people or old people in Kurdistan who are like you to worry about our rivers and water sources, or there are only a few?
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No.
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Fortunately, yes, after uh 15 years have been talking about this.
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Uh, and of course, uh young people, they are we do uh citizen science, we train them how to actually do uh water quality monitoring, which we treat uh we train young people how to find threats.
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Absolutely, we we have a force.
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We have a force.
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These people they might be thinking eh, they are a joke.
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We're not.
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Yeah.
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Young people, they know what's going on because of us, because of you.
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I have to thank you with your podcast and with all the videos you posting.
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So that's that's what we should do as the older generation.
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We should tell them all this bomb we are planting, it will explode at some point.
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As you see, dam is one of them.
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Yeah.
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Behind me, this is Chaksa.
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Is this a destroyed dam or they are building it?
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It's failed dam.
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No, no, it's a failed.
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As you see, in 2005, this was funded by Swedish NGO and corrupt engineer.
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They built this in 2000, they started 2002 or something like that, and and and and um it failed 2005, it caused big disaster.
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Oh, big massive disaster, and I remember.
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We have that on the video.
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I was um young at that time.
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Um we recorded everything.
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So right now we have globally, um, as you see, this river is free-flowing river now, okay?
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Yeah, should be free, should be flow all the way to uh where it goes.
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Yeah, the marshlands in the basra, for example.
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But what we do with the free-flowing river globally, we build dams.
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So the way we build them as a human is really bad.
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Is really so that that's one thing because the Kurdistan region has built a few dams, and uh I know that in the United States they have begun to demolish their old dams.
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They realized the value of the river is bigger than the value of the dam.
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Thank you so much.
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So he but is there not a difference between one country and another?
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No one should build dams?
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Do you think if you ask me, I'm a kayaker, I'm a swimmer, free-flowing river, nothing wrong in nature, everything is perfect.
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Yeah.
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Everything is there for a reason.
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Free-flowing river is there.
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Like, why water rapids?
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The name is in itself.
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Yes, exactly.
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So when we dam it, even like the law starts in here in Iraq.
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Hammurabi, when he's writing all the laws, and one day this community they run to him, um, they say, We have a problem.
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They said, What is the problem?
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They said, water, sharing waters.
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And so he makes law about dams.
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At that time, for example, we always should take care of the nature, environmentally friendly behavior.
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Like the way animals they build dams is very friendly, especially beaver, uh badger.
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But the way we build dams, this is nothing compared to Mosul Dam or Ataturek Dam, for example, or Yellow River dams in China.
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Those dams is choking our blood systems basically.
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That's why Earth is no longer functioning to have in us, and we we give heart attack to the earth because of all these dams.
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We're slowing down the perfect ecosystems to actually make it destroy.
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That's why we're having funny feisty events like wildfires and tsunamis and corona and you name it, because of look what we do.
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We turn in our nature to concrete.
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Right now, where we are sitting, if you look at it around me, is all construction waste.
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So you build, never mind, you build malls, but what we do with the waste.
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With the waste, yeah, construction waste, we actually just throw it the nearest place we can to the river most of the time.
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So, what we do to the new generation, if we honest, if we honest, as an older generation, we have to tell them all this.
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We're actually destroying your future.
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Because there is no future if there is no river.
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Actually, most people don't even know there is a river in Slimania City which is such now.
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So imagine the new generation.
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Soon as the coffee shops open, two weeks before it's open, they know that it's a coffee shop.
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But they don't come to the nature.
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But this is the my problem.
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Like Iraqi people, Kurdish people and Kurdistan, if we don't go to the nature, if we don't go to the Pirate Magrum mountain, we drive by it and we don't see it.
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Myself personally, I know all of these things because I go to the river every day, nearly.
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You care about them and you are curious.
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It's is my love, is my relationship.
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I have a real relationship with Peter Magrum, with uh Hazarmer, with all the caves we have.
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That's why I I want to make the uh noise.
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I want to shout.
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I want to say Kurdistan is the heaven.
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You don't have to, you know, really dream about heaven.
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This is heaven, but in four.
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Don't destroy it.
00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:26.879
Exactly.
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I agree.
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I mean the nature here is beautiful.
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You should not try to make it more beautiful with resorts or this and that.
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Leave it alone.
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It's the heaven you want, completely.
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Sorry, my my dog just likes uh picking dentists away.
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Um and yeah, and thank you, like to you paying attention to this because our attention is being stolen.
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Yeah, uh, our feelings being stolen by screen.
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As soon as we wake up, we we actually make other people richer by paying wrong attention to things.
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This my attention, maybe probably you know, I know you different because probably your attention is not being stolen by could be TV, could be other stuff.
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So I read something the other day, um it rode my uh my mind and saying, um be careful what you practice because whatever you keep practicing, you're gonna be good at it.
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So be careful what you practice.
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So we're practicing in general.
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I don't speak for myself, but in general I can see people they practicing wrong things.
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That's true.
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Please, this is the message for the young people as well.
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Never mind have the iPhone 18, 15, or having an iPad screen, something, but you have to actually balance that practice, what you practice.
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Nature practices it makes you realize why we keep opening hospitals, why we have so much noise in the society, why I am living in a society, but when I go to the nature, I feel like I'm in the camp.
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We really live in a camp.
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Houses living in this block of house, you're not being designed for that.
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You should be free, you should be out there.
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You're designed for 18 hours of hunting, yeah, and sitting down, doing nothing, and you're proud of it, you're losing your purpose.
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So, human, if you don't go to the nature, if you don't see how the vegetables grow, if you don't see how the bees work, and you you you have a wrong lifestyle.
00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:26.720
Yeah.
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And I think in Kurdistan we have this amazing chance.
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It's a small country.
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If you drive five minutes, ten minutes from any city, you are in the heart of nature.
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It's easy to connect with nature in Kurdistan.
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So that's why it's people's own responsibility just to go and explore.
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Absolutely, but I think we need more royal model like yourself and people's, which is the honest.
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We don't give wrong information to the young peoples because you don't learn everything from the school and universities.
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Nature's your university.
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Real universities is your nature.
00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:09.200
We should all know how to grow our food, what to see, what to do, and like what is the healthy lifestyle?
00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:14.559
For me, that the craziest things, we drive to work and we go to the gym.
00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:19.519
You know, if you the healthy society is how you actually measure it by what?
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:23.119
You see, you don't see people to do jogging.
00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:26.720
When I run, people they see me, uh-uh, uh, uh, what's wrong with these guys?
00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:29.200
And I was telling my friends, can we go jogging?
00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:30.079
Can you go for a run?
00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:31.200
He said, What why?
00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:32.160
What's happened?
00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:37.200
It's like in our mind, it's if somebody's run, it has to something happen.
00:18:37.279 --> 00:18:38.799
No, running is good for your body.
00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:42.559
Go to the nature's climbing mountain is good for your mind, for your body.
00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:55.039
But in here, it has not been recognized by because of in the last 15 years, I can see slowly, slowly, people they do uh go to the nature, they kind of they they they they they appreciate what we have left.
00:18:55.279 --> 00:19:06.319
Uh but unfortunately the people, those people on power, especially uh people with money, billionaires and people in the politics, they run in our life, they do big mistakes.
00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:22.000
Like, for example, building dams on on Rwandes River, for example, that if you type it Rwandus Gorge on on Google, it describes it as one of the most spectacular actually gorge in the Middle East.
00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:24.400
But what we do with it, we're building dam.
00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:31.599
We're destroying it, we're erasing, we deleting our actually culture and society by wrongdoing.
00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:32.480
We don't feel it.
00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:35.920
Dam is no longer actually good for nature.
00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:38.960
You choking your blood, your lifelines.
00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:40.799
There must be alternatives.
00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:41.680
Oh, absolutely.
00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:44.880
There is friendly dam, there's a beautiful environmentally friendly dam.
00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:51.279
And believe me or not, the fish we used to have in Tanjaro, but we don't have them anymore.
00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:56.480
All the way from Derbenikan and Tanjaro coming all the way upstream, spawning in here.
00:19:56.640 --> 00:19:56.880
Here.
00:19:57.279 --> 00:19:58.799
Absolutely, and going down all the way.
00:20:01.359 --> 00:20:03.519
There is no fish, there is no turtle, there is nothing.
00:20:03.839 --> 00:20:13.039
So I have witnessed in that because free-flowing river, that's how you actually have in a healthy fishery lifestyle because of the free-flowing river.
00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:15.279
When you build a dam, fish doesn't like it.
00:20:15.440 --> 00:20:25.279
Like the fish in Ducan Lake, it goes back to a mowat to spawn because the river is fresher and colder and it's very, very uh suitable for spawning.
00:20:26.079 --> 00:20:31.759
So when you build dams, we kill fishery, we kill biodiversity, we kill in our culture and everything.
00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:38.640
So, what we do, politicians soon is oh, let's uh be proud of uh we finished another dam, we finished another dam.
00:20:38.799 --> 00:20:39.599
Dam is bad.
00:20:39.759 --> 00:20:42.559
Dams is killing our everything.
00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:44.880
So, what is the alternative?
00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:46.480
Manage it in a better way, okay?
00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:51.359
Environmentally friendly dams, and when you build dams, you make fish ladder.
00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:58.240
Um, I mean, fish can actually go to the ladder and go to go back to the fresh river and come back to the lakes.
00:20:58.559 --> 00:21:02.880
So there is always a way to fix this injury.
00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:06.160
We we we give cancer to our planets in general.
00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:14.640
Is there not an uh a ministry uh uh government institution here to worry about the rivers and water sources?
00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:17.119
But they do worry about it in the wrong way.
00:21:17.279 --> 00:21:17.599
Okay?
00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:20.799
Look, just look what what's happening behind us.
00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:31.119
This is this is this is this is this is my problem like with the people, they are on power, they're trying to turn in our nature to concrete it.
00:21:31.279 --> 00:21:38.000
And and and uh the problem is like when you give tools to the wrong person doesn't know what to do with it.
00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:43.119
So basically, our system is run by the politicians and people don't say that much as well.
00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:44.559
Of course, we are guilty too.
00:21:44.799 --> 00:21:51.599
And the politicians, government people might not necessarily have bad intentions, they may not know what to do for the environment.
00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:57.440
There is no many expertise to do survey about where did we go wrong?
00:21:57.599 --> 00:21:59.039
How did we destroy our nature?
00:21:59.279 --> 00:21:59.759
Like, for example.
00:22:02.079 --> 00:22:03.680
This is wrongdoing, for example.
00:22:03.920 --> 00:22:06.319
What we do, we go to the caves, for example.
00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:06.720
Okay?
00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:12.000
People they go to the cave, we don't know how to react to the stagma light, for example, we break it.
00:22:12.319 --> 00:22:16.640
Okay, we go to the we wherever we go, we don't see it as a temple.
00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:19.519
We don't see it as a we don't see the value of it.
00:22:19.839 --> 00:22:20.240
Exactly.
00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:20.640
Exactly.
00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:22.000
Or the spray paint.
00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:25.519
Exactly, spray paint, distractions, pollutions.
00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:29.200
Look at all this construction waste and all this pollution.
00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:31.920
Most of the times we use river as a dumping ground.
00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:32.240
Yes.
00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:34.000
Just for uh that is the wrong thing.
00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:35.279
Take it away, yeah.
00:22:35.359 --> 00:22:35.599
Exactly.
00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:37.839
Give it to River, River will take care, take it away.
00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:40.319
And no, no, this is your life.
00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:41.599
This is your blood.
00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:46.640
If you don't take care of it, you don't take care of your 80% of our bodies the water.
00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:47.279
Yeah.
00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:49.279
We came from soil and water.
00:22:49.359 --> 00:22:58.880
So without it, these guys, what they do to this soil, they do it to my probably our grand-grandparents' body, basically.
00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:00.960
That's that's your body.
00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:02.480
We are all one.
00:23:02.640 --> 00:23:03.119
Exactly.
00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:07.200
And it's providing you food, and you will go back there again when you die.
00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:08.400
And you come from that.
00:23:08.559 --> 00:23:10.000
What is Adam and Eve's story?
00:23:10.079 --> 00:23:10.880
Is that the mud?
00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:12.319
Clay.
00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:13.119
Yeah, clay.
00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:16.240
And there is a Hyam's poem I always I love.
00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:20.880
He's saying be careful with that tarakota in your folder, the goza.
00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:23.839
Don't drop it, break it.
00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:26.240
It might be your grand-grandparents' body.
00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:27.119
That's beautiful.
00:23:27.279 --> 00:23:41.920
So for me, the feeling of like how did Rumi become so beautifully poetic and his poem, because he was observing the winds moving the grass and the trees and sound of the river.
00:23:42.160 --> 00:23:44.240
Look at the pollution we have in the city.
00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:49.279
Sound pollutions, air pollutions, water pollution, everything's pollution.
00:23:49.759 --> 00:23:54.079
I see society as a pollution, I see human as a pollution, as a polluter.
00:23:54.319 --> 00:23:56.880
So we are actually bad for this planet.
00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:02.400
That's why during the corona, the earth was trying to get rid of us because we are bad.
00:24:02.559 --> 00:24:03.680
We're doing bad things.
00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:05.599
We do look at the Trump.
00:24:05.839 --> 00:24:06.160
Okay?
00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:15.920
Having Obama for eight years working with the um Paris Agreements, and they as soon as another politicians come to the power, bring it back to the zero.
00:24:16.079 --> 00:24:18.799
So the curve is just keep going up and keep going up.
00:24:18.960 --> 00:24:19.680
Do you know what?
00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:22.480
If we don't bring it down, it will be it's already too late.
00:24:22.799 --> 00:24:27.440
If you ask me Iraq, why Iraq is in the fifth most dangerous country in the world.
00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:28.240
Why?
00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:33.920
Agriculture, life, Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, everything started from here.
00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:42.079
From upstream, from actually, this is this river created 11,000 years of civilization in Bestansur because of this river.
00:24:45.519 --> 00:24:53.920
There was an archaeologist, they did um uh excavation, they found the oldest fisherman's net in Bestansur in Sharazur area.
00:24:54.079 --> 00:24:54.480
Wow.
00:24:54.640 --> 00:24:59.920
Like it was marshland there, and now nothing, nothing, just a sewage.
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:10.960
Yeah, because this water after Serchunar, from Darwaza, the first sewage stops yes, start from there all the way to Bestansuru Darbanikan.
00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:16.079
Is it only in the cities or do you think it has also reached the far hearts of nature?
00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:17.279
We keep going toward it.
00:25:17.359 --> 00:25:18.079
So everywhere.
00:25:18.400 --> 00:25:18.799
Everywhere.
00:25:19.039 --> 00:25:22.400
Suleimani was finishing from the Searchnar, okay?
00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:30.000
But now where we are standing, look, the householders, this is Pershmerga, this just behind the Chakchak is Kuzlat.
00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:31.359
You walk upstream.
00:25:31.599 --> 00:25:33.440
Pershmerga was the first checkpoint.
00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:35.759
There was no regime could control this area.
00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:36.640
It was forest.
00:25:37.039 --> 00:25:37.279
Wow.
00:25:38.079 --> 00:25:39.200
So there were trees here.
00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:39.680
Absolutely.
00:25:40.079 --> 00:25:41.599
And now there is not a single tree.
00:25:41.759 --> 00:25:42.720
Nothing, nothing.
00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:49.039
And the bird, when they fly, when they come from Africa or other countries, what they look for?
00:25:49.279 --> 00:25:50.240
Tree and water.
00:25:50.480 --> 00:25:54.400
So you've seen birds from other countries landing here when you were a child.
00:25:54.720 --> 00:25:55.119
Million.
00:25:55.200 --> 00:25:55.839
Every year.
00:25:55.920 --> 00:25:58.559
The sky was no way you could see the sky.
00:25:58.640 --> 00:26:03.920
It was just black with black crow, stallion, you name it.
00:26:04.079 --> 00:26:05.039
Even flamingo.
00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:06.640
I have seen flamingo in this river.
00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:07.440
Luck luck.
00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:08.240
Everything was.
00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:10.160
And that's only 40 years ago.
00:26:10.400 --> 00:26:10.960
Absolutely.
00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:16.720
And now it's not even a local tree, not a local bird, just construction waste as here.
00:26:17.119 --> 00:26:17.519
Exactly.
00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:21.599
This is what we do to our fertile lands and soils.
00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:23.839
We turn it to actually desert.
00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:30.799
Iraq is going toward desertation because of bad doing by humans, by us, and not paying attention what we have left.
00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:33.599
And they plant five trees, and that's it.
00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:34.400
What is this?
00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:35.359
This is gulag.
00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:38.480
This is this is like a uh they put it in the boxes.
00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:41.599
That's why everybody's that's why all the hospitals they're doing very good.
00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:42.880
Gulag, that's yeah.
00:26:43.119 --> 00:26:45.839
It's a gulag, it's a construction labor camp.
00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:48.000
Exactly, it's a construction, it's a camp.
00:26:48.160 --> 00:26:52.960
But I I I I feel uh living because I do a lot of outdoor activities.
00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:57.759
Uh I I I I know I'm not designed for for 150 meter lands.
00:26:57.839 --> 00:26:58.559
I'm not designed for that.
00:26:58.960 --> 00:27:03.039
Yeah, I heard that humans are made to spend 82% of their time outdoors.
00:27:03.119 --> 00:27:03.440
Absolutely.
00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:05.119
Now it's 90% indoors.
00:27:05.759 --> 00:27:06.240
Absolutely.
00:27:06.319 --> 00:27:31.039
We are we are we are a mountain people, we are a mountaineer, we're born to like dealing with fresh water, what we have in here, mountains, our identity, our everything, as the creation of this lifeline, this mountains, bringing all these clouds and making love, snow, filter to us.
00:27:31.680 --> 00:27:36.319
In South, I felt whenever I go to South, this is not a bad thing.
00:27:36.799 --> 00:27:37.359
South of Iraq.
00:27:37.440 --> 00:27:38.160
Yeah, south of Iraq.
00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:49.680
When I go to the there is so many beauty you can see in the marshlands, but unfortunately, since 1991, the Gulf War, we destroyed uh Iraq's nature.
00:27:49.839 --> 00:28:07.200
It was one of the biggest um environmental disasters in entire human history happened in 1991 because of uh drying, uh destroying all the marshlands, um, and of course uh blowing up all the oil wells in Kuwait and Iraq uh during the Gulf War.
00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:11.680
That was one of the biggest uh man-made um environmental disaster.
00:28:11.920 --> 00:28:18.799
But whenever I go to south, there is still some beauty on the um on the marshlands, but you don't see mountains.
00:28:19.119 --> 00:28:21.039
That's why there's no much drama in the sky.
00:28:21.200 --> 00:28:23.839
They don't have snow, they don't have a fresh river like us.
00:28:24.240 --> 00:28:27.039
So what we do, we're destroying it for them as well.
00:28:27.279 --> 00:28:28.160
So they are suffering.
00:28:28.319 --> 00:28:42.640
Busra, it will be not longer actually, sooner or later, uh suitable for humans to leave in because imagine 19 cities, 50 million people, the sewage waste, urban waste, chemicals, hospital waste, industrial waste all go to the river.
00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:52.799
So And the problem is that in Iraq, uh in Kurdistan as well, but mainly in Iraq, people are so proud of the rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates.
00:28:52.880 --> 00:28:54.079
Something you are so proud of.
00:28:54.240 --> 00:28:57.119
Why do you dump all this sewage into it?
00:28:57.359 --> 00:28:58.240
Exactly.
00:28:58.640 --> 00:29:04.880
That's one of the biggest problems, and that the bigger, bigger, bigger than that problems, it's created by upstream countries.
00:29:04.960 --> 00:29:16.160
Like I like to say this because uh most of the time the people they don't realize 80% of Iraq's water uh comes from neighbor countries like Turkey and Syria, from the greater Kurdistan.
00:29:16.319 --> 00:29:17.920
But where is the greater Kurdistan?
00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:22.240
Part of it is controlled by Syria, part of it controlled by Turkey, part of control by Iran.
00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:32.880
The Zagros and Adolan Mountains is creating this beautiful, fresh river, creating the Twin River, Euphrates and Tigris and Greater Zab and Lasazab.
00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:41.680
They no longer actually functioning like say 100 years ago, because the the age of building dams is only 100 years old.
00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:44.559
So we've been damming our rivers.
00:29:44.720 --> 00:29:50.880
We have 75,000 large dams in on our fresh river on this planet.
00:29:51.279 --> 00:29:56.720
And most of the countries globally they're recognizing the dams as an uh unexploited bomb.
00:29:57.039 --> 00:29:58.079
And it it is a bomb.
00:29:58.319 --> 00:29:58.799
It is the bomb.
00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:01.920
Actually, when you look at a dam, you get you are scared a bit.
00:30:02.079 --> 00:30:02.960
You know one day as well.
00:30:03.279 --> 00:30:04.880
Is the man-made mistake?
00:30:04.960 --> 00:30:06.480
Yeah, Mosul dams.
00:30:06.720 --> 00:30:13.039
Six million Iraqis people every day's lives endangered because of his bursting, is failed dam.
00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:24.720
That's why uh there is an Italian company, they dump in, they pump in uh every day's I don't know how many tons of cements and um to keep the dams functional until they build another one.
00:30:25.839 --> 00:30:28.319
Makhul uh dams they are building now.
00:30:28.559 --> 00:30:39.359
So um what do you say to people who not to people, I mean some research and data says that Kurdistan has enough water, we only have the problem of management.
00:30:39.519 --> 00:30:40.079
Is that true?
00:30:40.160 --> 00:30:42.640
We do we have enough water and we miss manage?
00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:51.599
No, we don't have there is no the problem we Iraq and Kurdistan and Iraq, but if you look at the populations keep rising, okay?
00:30:51.839 --> 00:30:57.759
And if you look at Turkey, they keep finishing the GAP project, which is holding 22 dams.
00:30:58.000 --> 00:30:59.279
Iso dams is one of them.
00:30:59.920 --> 00:31:01.279
So it's a group of dams, not just one?
00:31:01.759 --> 00:31:03.039
Oh, it's many of them.
00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:05.200
Many dams by Turkey and Iran.
00:31:05.279 --> 00:31:07.440
They keep Iran they have a water crisis.
00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:23.839
And what they do, they keep building dams, choking our rivers, especially um Sirwan River and uh Lesazab River, and of course some other tributary, they keep keep building dams, even they don't let the spillway waters come downstream.
00:31:23.920 --> 00:31:40.960
They even catching that and they building tunnels and uh so uh if if some researchers they want to do something about this, they need to go actually find out how many upstream countries they choke in our rivers because free, as I said, rivers should be free.
00:31:41.039 --> 00:31:41.359
Yeah.
00:31:41.599 --> 00:31:45.519
The dams is a huge one of the biggest mistakes we do on our planet.
00:31:45.759 --> 00:31:50.400
As I mentioned, you could build dams, but you could build environmentally friendly small dams.
00:31:50.480 --> 00:32:04.960
But the way we build them in these days, we cause a lot of problems, and there will be more refugees, there will be more war, there will be more uncertainty and no fairy tale lands, and we're destroying our civilization basically.
00:32:05.039 --> 00:32:06.720
The life look at the lachtak there.
00:32:06.880 --> 00:32:08.160
Yeah, you see that's a stork.
00:32:08.720 --> 00:32:09.440
That's a stork.
00:32:09.519 --> 00:32:09.680
Yeah.
00:32:09.920 --> 00:32:14.480
If it wasn't like this, there would be many more storks and there's no as I mentioned.
00:32:14.720 --> 00:32:18.559
We need we need these guys to come back if we want to have a healthy lifestyle.
00:32:18.640 --> 00:32:18.799
Yeah.
00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:22.480
But what we do, we keep building hospitals.
00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:23.839
We don't see the main.
00:32:25.359 --> 00:32:27.119
Yes, yes, we don't see the main course.
00:32:27.279 --> 00:32:29.519
The people, they just saying, oh, we have a free flow.
00:32:29.839 --> 00:32:30.319
No, you don't.
00:32:30.400 --> 00:32:34.960
You don't go go pay attention what Turkey does to our river, for example.
00:32:35.119 --> 00:32:40.000
Pay attention globally, like privatizing rivers, Coca-Cola, they do it, other companies.
00:32:40.160 --> 00:32:42.400
Look, this water is free.
00:32:42.720 --> 00:32:45.359
They put it in the bottle and they sell it to us.
00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:48.640
And they call it, oh, I have a company, I'm I'm I'm selling water.
00:32:48.799 --> 00:32:50.640
You don't sell water, you sell plastics.
00:32:50.720 --> 00:32:50.799
Yes.
00:32:51.039 --> 00:32:51.839
Water is free.
00:32:52.079 --> 00:32:52.720
Water is free.
00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:57.200
It's created by by I I I can go drink this one uh right straight away.
00:32:57.440 --> 00:33:03.039
But 100 meters downstream probably you cannot because there's humans started and lifestyle here.
00:33:03.279 --> 00:33:13.599
So I think we need to recognize the problem that that may be um the recipe for solution in the future.
00:33:13.759 --> 00:33:21.440
The problem is we have in these days because we're so busy with um wrongdoing and wrong lifestyles.
00:33:21.759 --> 00:33:22.480
Chasing other goals.
00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:23.599
Exactly.
00:33:23.920 --> 00:33:29.599
Making ourselves sick and the money we create we are and spending it on our health.
00:33:29.759 --> 00:33:33.920
No, if you have a healthy organ and lifestyles, it's all money.
00:33:34.160 --> 00:33:40.880
It's all here, temporary, and and please pay attention and be good to earth, be good to the river.
00:33:41.279 --> 00:33:51.359
And when you die, if you there is another chance to live, if you be good to the earth, you might come back again and uh or you'll go to heaven, yeah.
00:33:51.680 --> 00:34:01.359
So the the problem here in Kurdistan to the rivers, is it only sewage and other small-scale pollution, or do we have industrial pollution also?
00:34:01.599 --> 00:34:02.960
Absolutely, industrial pollution.
00:34:03.039 --> 00:34:15.440
If you look at it after 2003, if you look at the way we dig oil wells, the way we export and import, the way we eat, the way we uh build things, um, is really wrong.
00:34:15.599 --> 00:34:21.119
It's it it you go towards south and you will see more and more and more.
00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:27.920
And Iraq, Kurdistan, people they think, oh, uh all these Arab people, they come in here.
00:34:28.320 --> 00:34:29.360
Of course they're gonna come here.
00:34:29.519 --> 00:34:37.199
Of course, people they they they go upstream where the f the the fresher water, yeah, and if you like it or not, and this is is gonna cause a lot of uncertainty.
00:34:37.280 --> 00:34:41.679
Like, for example, you create more refugees, like you go to Germany, oh we don't like you, refugee.
00:34:41.840 --> 00:34:46.960
But yeah, stop all the war, for example, and create that the platform.
00:34:47.119 --> 00:34:48.159
What is the problem?
00:34:48.400 --> 00:34:49.840
Personally, I know all the problems.
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:53.760
We are in a solution mood, but who are you gonna talk to to make the solution?
00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:59.360
These people, all the millionaires, and I had this conversation with there.
00:34:59.679 --> 00:35:09.039
There is the fake environmentalists, there is the fake intellectual people, there's the fake doctors, fake engineers, for example, building fake dams, and morality is we're losing it.
00:35:09.360 --> 00:35:10.800
People, they're not honest.
00:35:10.960 --> 00:35:17.360
They are like all these fake prayers, fake this is the problem.
00:35:18.320 --> 00:35:24.639
You mean there is fake environmentalism to greenwashing everything, destroying nature and doing some plantation stuff?
00:35:24.960 --> 00:35:25.519
Absolutely.
00:35:25.679 --> 00:35:39.280
All the millionaires and billionaires, they hire somebody's expertise to clean their froth, to say uh good things about the factories, good things about their businesses, and that's what's slowing us down as an environmentalist.
00:35:39.760 --> 00:35:42.079
They should come to people to experts in the field.
00:35:42.320 --> 00:35:44.480
Yeah, we not a fake expert.
00:35:44.800 --> 00:35:45.119
Exactly.
00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:46.800
You bring the fake expert.
00:35:47.039 --> 00:35:49.039
Come at Oxford University, they do that.
00:35:49.119 --> 00:36:05.920
You cannot do research on, for example, Axel Mobiles and all these uh BPs, big giant companies, they don't let any uh quality research on, for example, uh fossil fuel like uh the I mean it's only hundred years old.
00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:27.599
Uh this destroying our planet and for example all this uh um uh uh injury like like um we digging, we keep digging and and uh and we don't stop all this uh cannon and and digging is uh it has to be stopped, and because we we we we just greedy, we greedy, we don't know why we greedy.
00:36:27.840 --> 00:36:31.840
We need to slow down all that greediness and and and appreciate what we have left.
00:36:32.079 --> 00:36:40.000
Do do you uh know if we have had any small rivers here or creeks that have completely disappeared in your own lifetime?
00:36:40.239 --> 00:36:41.599
Oh absolutely, this is one of them.
00:36:41.679 --> 00:36:43.679
I mean this year we had this is appeared.
00:36:43.760 --> 00:36:46.559
Sometimes this water doesn't appear at all.
00:36:46.880 --> 00:36:55.360
But this has been we are still in winter and it was there was a lot of rain, that's why there is that's why we have this a lot of rain and snow on Piramagrum Mountain.
00:36:55.440 --> 00:37:01.119
As I mentioned, this mountain is 45 kilometer arranged mountains all the way to Dukan.
00:37:01.280 --> 00:37:04.320
Yeah, so it's holding this fresh, beautiful snow.
00:37:04.559 --> 00:37:13.199
Uh part of it it goes to Tabil River, goes all the way to Smaller Zap from Chemirazan, and part of it is coming to this side and creating this.
00:37:13.760 --> 00:37:15.440
This is snow water basically.
00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:16.480
It's a snow juice.
00:37:16.559 --> 00:37:17.519
I call it snow juice.
00:37:17.599 --> 00:37:19.519
This is you can drink it straight away.
00:37:19.679 --> 00:37:24.239
And all this mountain, these politicians and businessmen, they're melting down our mountain.
00:37:24.320 --> 00:37:27.119
They don't realize that's your barat, that's your filteration.
00:37:27.440 --> 00:37:29.039
Yeah, that's your natural AC.
00:37:29.119 --> 00:37:29.280
Yeah.
00:37:29.760 --> 00:37:30.239
Idiot.
00:37:30.320 --> 00:37:32.880
This is this is really bad.
00:37:33.039 --> 00:37:49.199
What they do, yeah, and we need to teach this in the university, AUIS, Comar University, in Jihan University, in old in Erbil, and we need to make a program to tell the new generation what we do to our nature, you do it to your body.
00:37:49.280 --> 00:37:51.199
That's why they keep opening hospital.
00:37:51.360 --> 00:37:54.880
That's why, and and let's wait for mental problems.
00:37:55.280 --> 00:37:58.239
Because your nature is your mental stability.
00:37:58.400 --> 00:37:58.719
That's true.
00:37:59.039 --> 00:38:01.840
If you for me, it is working, okay?
00:38:01.920 --> 00:38:03.039
I found a trek.
00:38:03.199 --> 00:38:04.800
Sometimes I use this.
00:38:05.199 --> 00:38:07.920
Uh, some friends say, I feel I don't feel very well.
00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:09.840
I need injection from Peter Magro.
00:38:10.079 --> 00:38:10.239
Oh.
00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:13.280
I I I I I I don't do injection from hospitals.
00:38:13.360 --> 00:38:22.960
So I inject my body through climbing, through swimming, through staying in the night with the nature and appreciate this beautiful, beautiful drama.
00:38:23.119 --> 00:38:26.159
I don't need to watch it from national geography at home.
00:38:26.559 --> 00:38:28.400
I am inside it, I'm part of it.
00:38:28.559 --> 00:38:42.320
Yeah, I think I always say we should do the same for the new generation, is uh ourselves and the younger generation know about all kinds of birds and animals in Africa or South America through National Geographic.
00:38:42.480 --> 00:38:47.039
But they don't know anything, people here, about our own birds and mammals and nature.
00:38:47.280 --> 00:38:48.559
That's the thing, that's the problem.
00:38:48.719 --> 00:38:57.119
And I did the fish survey uh on nine rivers, which is creating the Rwandus uh river, which call it they call it Azadi River.
00:38:57.599 --> 00:39:00.960
I did the fish um survey on those rivers.
00:39:01.360 --> 00:39:03.519
I found only 12 species.
00:39:03.679 --> 00:39:03.920
Wow.
00:39:04.159 --> 00:39:05.920
Took me two years to finish that project.
00:39:08.480 --> 00:39:09.199
Yeah, 12 only.
00:39:09.679 --> 00:39:10.960
Is that too little or too many?
00:39:11.199 --> 00:39:12.320
It's so little.
00:39:12.880 --> 00:39:19.440
In Iraq, apparently I worked with this expertise, the fish uh scientist from German.
00:39:19.679 --> 00:39:31.840
He was saying, uh at least we have in the history of the book he was uh researching, uh 150 species still exist in Iraq, but it's not.
00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:33.440
It's not that we keep losing them.
00:39:33.519 --> 00:39:34.320
This is fish, okay?
00:39:34.400 --> 00:39:35.440
I'm talking about a fish.
00:39:35.599 --> 00:39:40.000
If you look, euphrate soft shelf turtle is endangered species.
00:39:40.159 --> 00:39:42.079
We lost it in the entire world, okay?
00:39:42.159 --> 00:39:46.960
We have it in Iraq, we're eating them now, and they are going to die that completely.
00:39:47.440 --> 00:39:51.920
We used to have lion in here, as you see in some of the Imam Ali's pictures, you know, there's a lion in the world.
00:39:52.159 --> 00:39:53.440
Some old stories as well, yeah.
00:39:53.679 --> 00:39:54.079
Absolutely.
00:39:54.159 --> 00:40:00.000
We used to have pure like biodiversity suitable for in 19.
00:40:00.320 --> 00:40:07.599
I heard in the 1980s they have spotted barefoot prints in Parkia Azadi in Suleimani.
00:40:07.760 --> 00:40:09.119
Wow, that's city center now.
00:40:09.679 --> 00:40:16.320
In the 1980s, um when the snow actually in the winter, they have spotted barefoot print in there.
00:40:16.559 --> 00:40:26.159
Um and now you have to go to Kandil or Penjin and the mountains, which is probably minefields, and they survive there because human doesn't go there.
00:40:26.320 --> 00:40:33.360
So wherever humans go, we uh hunt in the wrong way, we do fishing in the wrong way.
00:40:33.519 --> 00:40:38.000
We we do we bomb, we use bomb for fishing, we use poison for fishing.
00:40:38.079 --> 00:40:41.599
We we in south south Iraq still they use electric fishing.
00:40:41.840 --> 00:40:42.320
Yeah.
00:40:42.639 --> 00:40:47.519
They tear they catch the migratory flamingos in the south of Iraq and make them soup.
00:40:47.760 --> 00:40:48.079
Thank you.
00:40:48.239 --> 00:40:54.400
And they sell in the underground in the in animal market, they sell anything.
00:40:54.719 --> 00:40:55.119
Still?
00:40:55.280 --> 00:40:55.760
Oh yeah.
00:40:55.840 --> 00:40:58.639
Oh yeah, you can they sell it for$100, flamingo.
00:40:58.719 --> 00:40:58.880
Wow.
00:40:59.119 --> 00:41:13.679
And you see some other really rare species birds they catch, and so we hardly actually uh this this is used to be the cradle of everything, civilization suitable for all the birds.
00:41:13.840 --> 00:41:15.119
I mean, I witnessed that.
00:41:15.199 --> 00:41:24.320
I witnessed this free-flowing river was a lifeline for all entire Suleimani, Chemikanakawa as well, and all the cares, and we lost them all of it.
00:41:24.480 --> 00:41:33.360
It's unfortunate that you were born near this river, you saw it with your own eyes when it was like a forest and birds and everything, and you are still here.
00:41:33.440 --> 00:41:36.000
But this is the worst state you have seen it in your life.
00:41:36.159 --> 00:41:38.800
Absolutely, absolutely, and it's getting worse and worse and worse.
00:41:38.960 --> 00:41:40.239
We we have lost this river.
00:41:40.320 --> 00:41:46.079
I mean, last four or five years it was disappeared completely, but this year it's coming back because right now we have an exhibition about this.
00:41:46.239 --> 00:41:49.920
Hopefully, when we go, uh I will show you uh the day exhibition.
00:41:50.239 --> 00:41:54.320
I was going to ask uh you also kayak or paddle?
00:41:54.400 --> 00:41:55.039
Which one is that?
00:41:55.280 --> 00:41:57.760
I do I do kayaking, I do paddling, I do rafting.
00:41:58.159 --> 00:41:59.280
In different rivers in Kurdistan.
00:41:59.519 --> 00:41:59.920
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:00.800
And you've done them all?
00:42:01.039 --> 00:42:01.920
Yes, most of it.
00:42:02.079 --> 00:42:02.559
Most of it.
00:42:02.639 --> 00:42:04.719
Um but in different seasons, I assume.
00:42:04.880 --> 00:42:05.280
Absolutely.
00:42:05.440 --> 00:42:19.920
Like, for example, Lhasab, I have started rafting uh a couple of years we did that uh from the Iranian border when when the uh river actually from Mashan village entered Kurdistan territory.
00:42:20.159 --> 00:42:31.760
Um we kayaked from there all the way to Rania, for example, and swim all the way from Rania to um to Dukan Dam, 45 kilometers.
00:42:31.920 --> 00:42:37.119
And after Dukan Dams, we always kayak and raft all the way to Taktak and to Altonko.
00:42:37.599 --> 00:42:38.159
As much as you can.
00:42:38.239 --> 00:43:00.400
Oh yeah, yeah, we we do, and we we and south listen south of Iraq is a little bit different, it's difficult and it's different law uh and corruptions, but we have done greater zap rafting and we have done uh the the Rwandus River uh and you have a goal behind these uh raftings and swims, is to draw attention to the situation of water in Kurdistan.
00:43:00.639 --> 00:43:02.239
That and scientific research as well.
00:43:02.400 --> 00:43:03.039
Case study.
00:43:03.119 --> 00:43:18.320
For example, if I want to prove it, uh like for example, if you ask somebody, say where the Rwandus sewages go, you have to kayak to the river to find all the sewage line from the the state of Rwandus come to the river.
00:43:18.480 --> 00:43:24.239
So we do kayaking and rafting professionally because of our research and to knowing.
00:43:24.400 --> 00:43:29.039
If you want to know this river, you cannot just use a drone or you have to go through it.
00:43:29.119 --> 00:43:29.280
Yes.
00:43:29.440 --> 00:43:31.199
So finding all the threats.
00:43:31.280 --> 00:43:36.239
So we as a waterkeeper, we exist 370 waterkeepers around the world.
00:43:36.480 --> 00:43:44.159
We all know how to raft, kayak, swim, and um yeah, canoeing, uh even Kalak.
00:43:44.639 --> 00:43:47.280
We have a museum we will go in a minute.
00:43:47.599 --> 00:43:52.480
We know all the different boats because Kurdish boat is Kalak.
00:43:52.880 --> 00:43:57.599
If you go to south, they have Mashchouf, they have Tarada, for example, is different.
00:43:57.760 --> 00:43:59.599
So there is a time.
00:44:00.239 --> 00:44:01.920
Of Kurdish raft or boat.
00:44:02.079 --> 00:44:02.800
It's a raft.
00:44:03.119 --> 00:44:03.519
Exactly.
00:44:03.679 --> 00:44:06.000
Is Kalak is the modern raft?
00:44:06.159 --> 00:44:12.239
Because Kalak, basically, you bring 10 goat skin, you make it inflatable, you blow it.
00:44:13.519 --> 00:44:14.239
I'll show you later.
00:44:15.039 --> 00:44:19.679
So you put you attach it to the woods, it never capsized.
00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:20.960
And you go through it.
00:44:21.039 --> 00:44:42.079
So until 100 years ago, all the way from uh Diyarbakr and Adana uh Batman and Hassan Kiv, Jazeira, all the way from there with the Kurdish Kalak, they kayaked, they sorry, they raft, there's a modern raft, all the way from Hassan Kaif to Basra to Baghdad, selling their goods.
00:44:42.239 --> 00:44:50.880
Some of the kalaks like they put hundred like hundreds goat skins and it's carrying like sheep, goods, ton of things, ton.
00:44:51.199 --> 00:44:55.679
And sometimes they build a room in the middle of it for sleeping overnight.
00:44:55.760 --> 00:44:59.599
So it took them six days because the because of the free-flowing river.
00:44:59.760 --> 00:45:09.760
But nowadays, if you want to do that, no way you can do that because of dams, borders, countries, miseries, al-Qaiders, ISIS, conflicts, checkpoint.
00:45:10.079 --> 00:45:12.000
Oh my god, it's no way you can do that.
00:45:12.159 --> 00:45:13.599
So, what does that mean?
00:45:13.840 --> 00:45:18.960
The water was a transportation for everything, culture, religions.
00:45:19.280 --> 00:45:20.400
Yeah, clean transportation.
00:45:20.639 --> 00:45:20.960
Absolutely clean.
00:45:21.280 --> 00:45:31.679
If you compare it to trucks and lorries, the river is the cleanest form of environmentally friendly elements for connecting humans, whatever you see out, there is an awadani.
00:45:31.840 --> 00:45:37.440
Whenever you see river, fresh water, there will be beautiful humans and making beautiful lifestyle.
00:45:37.599 --> 00:45:40.559
But we no longer actually treat it like the way we used to.
00:45:40.800 --> 00:45:44.320
So if you wanna, for example, if you go to Hassan Cave, they all speak Arabic.
00:45:44.400 --> 00:45:46.000
You're thinking, how did that happen?
00:45:46.159 --> 00:45:46.960
Because of the river.
00:45:47.039 --> 00:45:52.079
Because they had to learn the language, they had to share the religions, cultures, and everything.
00:45:52.239 --> 00:45:53.360
That's how we connected.
00:45:53.760 --> 00:45:57.519
60 yeah, 5,000 years ago, how did we reach to Australia?
00:45:57.679 --> 00:45:59.440
Because of water, because of river.
00:45:59.599 --> 00:46:04.639
River took us to the sea and finding the seas, and we thought about oh, there might be life up there.
00:46:04.800 --> 00:46:10.400
So we use the goat skin and cow skins for transportation basically, and it's the oldest way.
00:46:10.480 --> 00:46:14.559
So Kurdish boat is different to southern Iraq's boat, so we have different boats.
00:46:14.639 --> 00:46:19.360
So here's there anyone still in use or or are they are only in museums, these Kurdish boats?
00:46:19.519 --> 00:46:21.519
And we don't use Kalak's anymore.
00:46:21.599 --> 00:46:24.159
Uh we use Kalak for with the inner tube.
00:46:24.400 --> 00:46:24.559
Yeah.
00:46:24.719 --> 00:46:25.920
But no goat skin.
00:46:26.079 --> 00:46:28.639
We don't even have any expertise to make goat skin.
00:46:28.800 --> 00:46:38.480
So the museum we have, I had to go to Kirmashan and uh La Roshalatla in Kurdistan in Iran to bring some goat skin.
00:46:38.559 --> 00:46:39.519
Uh we lost that.
00:46:39.599 --> 00:46:41.039
We nobody goat skin.
00:46:41.199 --> 00:46:45.519
Yeah, yeah, we don't we don't even know how to make the goat skin inflatable.
00:46:45.599 --> 00:46:49.199
It takes three months at least, and it's a very special way to do it.
00:46:49.280 --> 00:46:54.559
Uh, but we lost that skill, and it's it's it's been going on for thousands and thousands of years, that technique.
00:46:54.880 --> 00:47:02.880
Um so we know all of this because of we had to learn it, uh we had to um yeah, be with the river and flow with it.
00:47:03.119 --> 00:47:08.639
Okay, one last question before we go to the museum because I want to see that furnished raft.
00:47:09.039 --> 00:47:14.000
And how many uh waterkeepers are there in Iraq or Kurdistan?
00:47:14.239 --> 00:47:19.280
Is it you or have you trained some people in the last 10-15 years to work in this field?
00:47:19.519 --> 00:47:21.840
We have trained a lot of young people.
00:47:22.079 --> 00:47:35.760
There's um like uh I I brought the first paddle board uh to Kurdistan and Iraq in 2007, 8, 7, and um and of course I started boating.
00:47:35.920 --> 00:47:40.719
Uh now I know thousand young people they because we sell paddleboard as well.
00:47:40.800 --> 00:47:47.440
So uh thousand young, good, healthy young peoples, they are paddling with a paddleboard.
00:47:47.760 --> 00:47:51.599
And we don't like jet skis, and that's not our culture.
00:47:51.760 --> 00:47:57.280
Um that's we we sell good boats, we we attract, we we really educate.
00:47:57.599 --> 00:48:05.599
I would say there is hundreds of water keepers out there, but officially because of the lack of fund, I cannot employ them, but they're there.
00:48:05.679 --> 00:48:10.079
They are the young soldiers, they come in up to protect the environment, I'm hoping.
00:48:10.239 --> 00:48:17.599
So we create, we don't even that some people they think we indoctrinate, we brainwash it, but in a nice way.
00:48:17.679 --> 00:48:23.199
I mean, I uh they think I've been brainwashed because of we 370 water keepers.
00:48:23.360 --> 00:48:28.800
The movement started in in the United States in the 1980s, and the movement started with uh Robert F.
00:48:28.880 --> 00:48:29.199
Kennedy.
00:48:29.440 --> 00:48:33.519
Oh, I was going to ask, is it part of his uh campaign or project?
00:48:33.840 --> 00:48:34.239
RFK?
00:48:34.719 --> 00:48:35.440
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:48:35.599 --> 00:48:42.960
And uh uh Bobby Kennedy started the movement, but now he's in the Ministry of Health for the Trump's cabinet, unfortunately.
00:48:43.199 --> 00:48:57.360
But um, yeah, he he he created all the water keepers, and um of course every year when when I used to go there, um I love his speech, I love his knowledge, and of course he always says, We're not here to break the law.
00:48:57.440 --> 00:48:59.199
Yeah we're here to force the law.
00:48:59.519 --> 00:49:00.880
There is a law for this river.
00:49:01.039 --> 00:49:03.840
There is the law, take these guys accountable for what they do.
00:49:04.079 --> 00:49:19.679
But if we don't force it, if we don't force this beautiful environmental law we have internationally and in here as well, Iraqi law, Kurdistan environmental laws in here is much way beautiful than actually its details, but we don't force it, we don't practice it.
00:49:19.840 --> 00:49:20.320
That's the problem.
00:49:20.880 --> 00:49:24.159
If I have a power, I take these people accountable, for example.
00:49:24.320 --> 00:49:30.480
If I have a power, but in a nice way, because this is my life, this is my grand-grandparents' life, I should protect it.
00:49:30.559 --> 00:49:47.760
But because of Lockoff not having power and good lawyers and having a very uh corrupt system, um I still we haven't even taken one company, even one company accountable for uh for all the bad, wrong things they do.
00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:52.639
All the way from Iraq downstream, go to the southern in the marshlands.
00:49:52.960 --> 00:50:00.800
We all all these companies, householders, industrial waste, hospital waste, we don't filter heavy waters, they're all criminal.
00:50:00.880 --> 00:50:03.920
To me, they are breaking the law, and there is law for that.
00:50:04.159 --> 00:50:06.719
When we're gonna practice it, hopefully, one day.
00:50:06.960 --> 00:50:08.719
Hopefully, thank you so very much.
00:50:08.880 --> 00:50:10.000
I really appreciate this.
00:50:10.159 --> 00:50:10.559
Thank you.
00:50:10.800 --> 00:50:13.360
Let's if you have time, please let's go to the museum.
00:50:13.599 --> 00:50:17.840
Absolutely, it's it's very close, and they will be very pleased as well, and they're more than happy to be able to do it.
00:50:18.000 --> 00:50:22.719
And before we go, I should mention that you said your dog is part of your uh work.
00:50:22.960 --> 00:50:23.519
Yes, basically.
00:50:24.719 --> 00:50:30.400
He is a she is uh in an expert in finding sewage water.
00:50:30.639 --> 00:50:32.719
Yes, they they like what they've been trained.
00:50:32.800 --> 00:50:36.320
I mean, I've been trained, and he's been trained by me, and she's new trained.
00:50:36.400 --> 00:50:37.360
Uh so uh yes.
00:50:37.679 --> 00:50:41.599
So they detect it and they know where it comes from, where it merges into the river.
00:50:41.840 --> 00:50:42.159
Absolutely.
00:50:42.320 --> 00:50:46.239
If you look at the little one, look how curious with the fresh water, anything is coming down.
00:50:46.320 --> 00:50:48.559
So slowly, slowly, this is gonna be a new soldier.
00:50:48.800 --> 00:50:49.199
Trained as well.
00:50:49.360 --> 00:50:51.199
Yeah, I trained her him as well.
00:50:51.440 --> 00:50:55.039
But uh, we all have dogs, 370 waterkeepers.
00:50:55.280 --> 00:50:58.480
60% of us is female waterkeepers around the world.
00:50:58.639 --> 00:51:01.440
So we exist in 45 countries, we all have a dog.
00:51:01.840 --> 00:51:10.239
And dogs is the best companion for the humans, and and and and unfortunately, dogs really badly been treated in our societies, but we're not.
00:51:10.400 --> 00:51:11.360
This is this is the life.
00:51:11.920 --> 00:51:14.719
If you live and work in nature, you really need a dog.
00:51:14.880 --> 00:51:16.800
I must say that because I'm the same way.
00:51:17.119 --> 00:51:19.199
It's like your best, you're everything in nature.
00:51:19.519 --> 00:51:21.360
Absolutely, and everything's for me.
00:51:21.519 --> 00:51:28.239
Um, like yesterday we were walking uh with uh cookies little, sometimes she's uh he's silly.
00:51:28.400 --> 00:51:35.440
He was destroying like the ants coming out and uh their lands, and I said, No, leave them alone, you know, they have a right to live too.
00:51:35.840 --> 00:51:39.599
So everything is in nature, it's there for a reason, and there is no mistake in the nature.
00:51:39.840 --> 00:51:54.400
And we cannot destroy, and we should walk on this planet like really be carefully, it's so fragile because this ecosystem's it's been million, million years to balance this ecosystem to make it suitable for humans to live in.
00:51:54.480 --> 00:52:00.320
What we do to it in the last hundred, hundred and fifty years, we completely change in our ecosystem and destroy it.
00:52:00.639 --> 00:52:01.119
Yeah, exactly.
00:52:01.199 --> 00:52:18.000
What's sad is that an excavator or a machine can destroy in 10 hours what has taken nature one million years to whether it's a gorge or a rock or something, in three hours you could destroy what has taken a million years.
00:52:18.559 --> 00:52:18.960
Very sad.
00:52:19.199 --> 00:52:21.199
Absolutely, and another thing is war.
00:52:21.360 --> 00:52:22.079
Yeah, war, war.
00:52:22.480 --> 00:52:24.159
Politicians, they need to stop.
00:52:24.320 --> 00:52:38.639
If they want to have a better future for their kids, stop all the wars because if you look at the 1991s, the Gulf War, the amount of emissions and bombs they explode, it was the same amount in the Second World War.
00:52:39.039 --> 00:52:40.559
Just only in Iraq.
00:52:40.800 --> 00:52:53.599
That's why since that we have so the cancer rate, the the the MS, ME, all these health problems we have is just unbelievably going up and up and up.
00:52:53.760 --> 00:52:58.079
And I think impact of war, they they last decades.
00:52:58.239 --> 00:53:00.719
It's not that the temporary impact.
00:53:01.199 --> 00:53:05.679
A bomb that was dropped, let's say in 1990, it could still have effect today, I think.
00:53:05.920 --> 00:53:11.599
I we found last week we found the big missile in uh Jasena with these two dogs.
00:53:11.679 --> 00:53:16.800
I was hiking on the mountains uh uh in Jasana Cave and it was an explode.
00:53:17.039 --> 00:53:29.280
So for me, when I walk on some mountain, I know all the mine fields, uh otherwise, like for example, when I hike in Scotland or United States, I don't have to worry about that because they take their wars to somewhere else.
00:53:29.440 --> 00:53:30.159
It's their war.
00:53:30.320 --> 00:53:30.719
It's their war.
00:53:31.280 --> 00:53:31.760
The landmines.
00:53:32.239 --> 00:53:33.039
Exactly, exactly.
00:53:33.119 --> 00:53:34.079
Who created it?
00:53:34.239 --> 00:53:38.559
It's like uh, you know, all these guns being made.
00:53:38.719 --> 00:53:44.800
You know, the people like it pisses me off when uh European they think they feel sorry for us.
00:53:44.880 --> 00:53:49.280
I always say, no, don't feel sorry for me, you know, stop selling chemicals to Saddam.
00:53:49.440 --> 00:53:51.280
Your economy doesn't come from flowers.
00:53:52.079 --> 00:53:54.719
Holland they think, for example, oh, we sell flowers.
00:53:54.800 --> 00:53:55.679
No, you're not.
00:53:56.000 --> 00:53:57.360
It's part of it, flowers, is it?
00:53:57.599 --> 00:53:58.480
No, you don't sell flowers.
00:53:58.719 --> 00:53:59.039
Exactly.
00:53:59.119 --> 00:54:05.280
The flowers you show, you sell flowers and this and that, but end that what you sell.
00:54:05.519 --> 00:54:09.519
UK, they sell turbine to the dam in Turkey, for example.
00:54:09.679 --> 00:54:11.519
Stop all these dirty businesses.
00:54:11.679 --> 00:54:15.280
Otherwise, when the refugees come to your country, it's your fault.
00:54:15.679 --> 00:54:17.119
And now they know the result.
00:54:17.599 --> 00:54:18.159
Exactly.
00:54:18.320 --> 00:54:28.800
And like Merkel let 200 two million people to come in from a few years ago when the Syrian war started, she felt she knows, and they know that there's all of this politician.
00:54:28.960 --> 00:54:29.760
This is the problem.
00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:31.679
Economists they have to stop.
00:54:32.400 --> 00:54:36.960
They're like relying on war because the war is the fastest way to bring the economy up.
00:54:37.280 --> 00:54:39.199
Selling like Trump does.
00:54:39.360 --> 00:54:44.079
I mean, it was obvious he came to Saudi Arabia and he came to the dirty businesses.
00:54:44.559 --> 00:54:50.960
If you keep doing that, so don't moan about oh, there is refugees coming, they come into us, they come in.
00:54:51.039 --> 00:54:52.639
No, you messing it up.
00:54:52.800 --> 00:54:56.719
If you throw this two blocks of birds there, what are they gonna do?
00:54:56.800 --> 00:54:57.679
They're gonna fly away.
00:54:57.840 --> 00:54:58.239
Exactly.
00:54:58.480 --> 00:55:02.880
You because I'm traumatized, all Iraqi people we traumatize, we refugees.
00:55:03.039 --> 00:55:14.239
I I don't know, I I had to leave in 1996 because of civil war, because of the destructions of everybody was killing each other, and I had to leave, but now I'm back.
00:55:14.480 --> 00:55:17.440
Okay, and so now you are fighting another war.
00:55:17.679 --> 00:55:19.280
Absolutely, and this is the scariest one.
00:55:19.840 --> 00:55:21.199
This is the scariest one.
00:55:21.360 --> 00:55:23.039
Nothing to compare to this war.
00:55:23.199 --> 00:55:29.679
The water war, environmental, uh like climate change war, is gonna be one of the toughest, and you will see it.
00:55:29.760 --> 00:55:33.760
Yeah, and we'll have more victims than any other traditional war.
00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:39.199
Absolutely, absolutely, because this is this is it's not gonna be pleasant and it's not gonna be fun.
00:55:39.280 --> 00:55:40.639
It's already happening.
00:55:40.800 --> 00:55:47.679
If you look at the basra in 2018, there was water was contaminated in two days.
00:55:49.599 --> 00:55:58.719
210,000 people got sick, ended up in the hospital in two days just because of the tap water was contaminated, the sea water going back to the river.
00:55:58.800 --> 00:56:02.079
There was very drought that year, and we paid a huge price.
00:56:02.159 --> 00:56:08.719
We went to demonstrations, 700 people they lost their life because of, you know, they had to control the demonstration.
00:56:08.960 --> 00:56:11.280
So that that was the big call at that time.
00:56:11.679 --> 00:56:13.760
Yeah, those things should be connected to each other.
00:56:14.079 --> 00:56:18.159
These demonstrations or poisonings did not come out of the blue.
00:56:18.320 --> 00:56:26.159
There was the cause, and the cause was pollution and all what you say, what we do to the environment, the final victim is ourselves.
00:56:26.400 --> 00:56:26.880
Absolutely.
00:56:27.360 --> 00:56:42.400
We we like you and guys said, we dig in our own grave by ourselves actually, by destroying uh because as I mentioned, you are nothing without all these birds and biodiversity, because you're gonna be alone in the end.
00:56:42.480 --> 00:56:46.320
We're gonna be alone and we're gonna pay a huge price.
00:56:46.719 --> 00:56:47.280
Thank you so much.
00:56:47.519 --> 00:56:47.920
Thank you, Kage.
00:56:48.559 --> 00:56:48.880
Amazing.
00:56:48.960 --> 00:56:49.440
Wow.