Government’s Deep Sleep in Kohbanan, Kerman

According to FCN News Agency; Around 500 families in Kohbanan, Kerman are struggling in tents in sub-zero temperatures without basic facilities, enduring freezing cold.

It should be noted that most of Kohbanan’s residents are simple mine workers who suffer from respiratory problems due to non-standard working conditions.

Unfortunately, evidence indicates that health problems persist in this city. Cold weather, frost, lack of heating equipment and warm clothes, absence of bathrooms and sanitary facilities, food shortages on one hand, and the failure to pay wages and benefits to these hardworking and deprived workers of the Podaneh mine on the other hand, have bent the backs of Kohbanan residents.

(According to a report dated February 10, 2018 from IRNA News Agency, this coal mine had been shut down two years earlier due to failure to comply with safety regulations, but has now resumed operations after paying only outstanding wages until the end of June.)

The question is: what is the reason for the government’s failure to follow up in this city? Is it really impossible to provide even a single container for Kohbanan with such a small population? Could they not be temporarily housed in mosques and sports halls? According to local reports received; the mosques of this city have been empty of worshippers, and earthquake-affected people are unable to travel in this cold weather.

However, the answer to the above question is quite simple: irresponsibility, poor management, self-absorption, lack of expertise in appointed positions, absence of specialized crisis management, and in general the deep sleep of the authorities are the cause and source of all this pain and suffering of the defenseless people of Kohbanan and Iranian society.