ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The first stage of Erbil’s Green Belt Project has begun, an official confirmed to The New Region on Tuesday, with two plots of land near the outskirts of the city having been allocated for the initiative.

One of the two pieces of land allocated for the project covers an area over 1,000 dunams, and “soil from other places is under investigation” to determine the appropriate kinds of plants to be planted in the future, Hemn Sayyid Morad, the director of Erbil’s agricultural department, told The New Region on Tuesday.

The designated lands are located around the 150-meter road and the Bahrka area, Morad added.

The commencement of work on the project comes less than a month after the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Minister of Municipalities and Tourism Sasan Awni chaired a meeting “to discuss the implementation of the strategic Erbil Green Belt Project,” which was also attended by Erbil governor Omed Khoshnaw “along with relevant stakeholders from various governmental departments.”

The project aims to address the impacts of climate change and afforestation and the construction of several water retention ponds.

The belt is set to cover a width of over two kilometers, stretching behind the 150-meter road, and involves the construction of over 10 water ponds, in order to expand the city’s greenery and “prevent its conversion to non-agricultural uses such as commercial investment and residential development.”