51 percent decrease in water volume of dams in Sistan and Baluchestan; Zahedan representative calls for negotiations with Taliban to solve water problem
Mohammad Delmoradi, CEO of the Sistan and Baluchestan Regional Water Company, stated that the current volume of water in the dams of this province has “decreased by 51 percent” compared to the previous water year, and “the volume of water in the reservoirs of Sistan and Baluchestan dams is 34 percent of the total reservoir capacity.”
According to IRNA news agency, the greatest decline in water reserves has occurred in the Sarbaaz and Ziredan dams, and the deficit in groundwater resources amounts to 430 million cubic meters.
Meanwhile, Hossein Fadamalaki, the representative of Zahedan in parliament, emphasizing that the most important issue in Sistan and Baluchestan is water, has asked the government to send the Minister of Energy to Afghanistan and in negotiations with the Taliban, force them to solve the water supply problem “based on water rights.”
Iran and Afghanistan have been in dispute for years over the water rights of the Helmand River and Hamun Lake due to unprecedented drought in the region.
The Helmand water rights agreement was signed between Tehran and Kabul in 1972, but in the late 1990s, coinciding with a decrease in seasonal rainfall, the water level in Hamun Lake, which is the main source of water supply from the Helmand River, reached its minimum.
In recent years, dozens of villages in Sistan and Baluchestan province have been depopulated, and according to one of Iran’s parliamentary representatives, only 19 percent of the inhabitants of this province have access to safe drinking water.
Source: Radio Farda
