A number of important service projects at a cost of $260,000 are underway in Shaqlawa district, according to local officials.
"A 197 million dinar project to tile and maintain Shaqlawa streets will be initiated in the coming few days," the chairman of Shaqlawa municipal council, Honar Sayyed Taleb, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI).
Meanwhile, the director of Hiran district, Sawara Akram, said that a project to bring electricity to the new water station in the district will be launched in three days at a cost of 120 million dinars.
The two projects aim at boosting tourism and providing potable water, the official said, noting that they are financed through Arbil's budget for provincial development projects.
Akram explained that more than 200 families will benefit from the water project in Hiran summer resort.
Speaking to VOI, Taleb said that 15,000 cubic meters of Shaqlawa streets will be tiled and maintained, which will ease the flow of traffic and revive tourism in an area known for its outstanding natural beauty.
Shaqlawa district lies 51 km northeast of Arbil city, the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), about 360 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Also written Erbil or Irbil, Arbil city is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited in the world and is one of the largest cities in Iraq. The city lies eighty kilometers (fifty miles) east of Mosul. In 2005, its estimated population was 990,000 inhabitants.
Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, only isolated, sporadic violence has hit Arbil, unlike many other areas of Iraq. Parallel bomb attacks against the Eid celebrations arranged by the PUK and KDP killed 109 people on February 1, 2004. Responsibility was claimed by the Islamist group Ansar al-Sunnah, and stated to be in solidarity with the Kurdish Islamist faction Ansar al-Islam. Another bombing on May 4, 2005 killed 60 civilians. Despite these bombings the population generally feels safe.(Voices of Iraq)
