Icelandic Experts See Tourist Potential in Kurdistan’s Khurm

[Aslan]

KHURMAL, Kurdistan Region – Taha Kareem recalls that when a team from Iceland saw the Khurmal hot water springs in Iraqi Kurdistan, their first question was, “How far is the airport?”

That is because Kareem, a long-time Kurdish resident of Iceland with 16 years of experience in the geothermal sector, had brought the team of foreign experts to explore the tourist potential of the natural hot water springs in Khurmal, 20 kilometers east of Halabja in the autonomous Kurdistan Region.

It is Kareem’s dream to turn the mineral-rich waters into a spa modeled after Iceland’s Blue Lagoon, a natural hot-water pool that is one of the tiny nation’s biggest tourist attractions, drawing international visitors who come not only for its stunning vistas but also for the waters’ supposed curative qualities.

The Icelandic team has already drawn up a design for a future spa at the location.

Two professors from the University of Sulaimani, invited by Kareem to visit the Blue Lagoon spa in Iceland, helped conduct research on the Khurmal springs.

“We have conducted geology and geophysics studies on the natural spa and its temperature is very conducive to becoming a tourist attraction,” Dr Aram Namiq, professor of geophysics at the university, told Rudaw.

He said that the water temperature at Khurmal is about 10 or 11 degrees higher than normal – sometimes reaching 30 degrees Celsius -- and that one of the first things to be done to develop the site is to find the source of the warm water.

“People claim that warm water is available in some other places near the natural spa, but we can’t count on what people say. We have to conduct scientific geophysical studies to find the source of the warm water,” said Dr Amanj Ibrahim, a petrology expert at the university who went with Kareem to visit the Blue Lagoon.

Namiq said that Iceland had made very good use of geothermal energy, and had come forward to help with the Khurmal project, but complained there had been little response from the Kurdish side.

“The project is very important to our area, but implementing it is not within our capabilities,” said Khurmal District director Simko Salar Mushir. “We have informed the private sector of such a project but no companies have expressed interest,” he lamented.

Mushir said that the Khurmal administration has allocated 60 million Iraqi dinars ($52,000) for renovation and expansion of the natural springs.

The waters at Khurmal, which has an estimated population of 11,000, is rich in minerals like silicon dioxide, sulphate, fluorine and chloride. Locals say that the water is often used to treat some skin diseases, and that people have been coming to the place for a long time for its curative powers.

Kareem took some of Khurmal’s natural water to Iceland and presented his findings at a seminar. It drew such interest that he had to do the presentation three times.

[Anthea]

I confess I did not know anything about the natural hot water springs in Khurmal - I do know how popular and what fantastic tourist attractions those in other countries are - yet more expansion for the fast growing Kurdistan tourist industry

It seems to me that recently every time I read anything about Kurdistan it is something positive involving some form of growth in Kurdistan