Water crisis in Hamedan; Bar Association requests provincial prosecutor to follow up on alternative water source
HRANA News Agency – The Hamadan Provincial Bar Association, in a letter addressed to the provincial prosecutor, warned about the high level of arsenic in the water of the Talvar Dam, which is scheduled to be used in the near future to supply water resources to Hamadan and compensate for the existing water shortages, and demanded that this issue be addressed. The following report also describes some of the details of the water crisis in this city and the hardships that its residents are suffering in this regard. The lack of management of minimal and frequent water shortages has led to protests by the residents of this city in recent days.
According to HRANA News Agency, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, frequent water cuts in Hamedan have caused problems for the city's residents.
Nearly 17 years ago, the project to build a water transmission line from Talvar Dam to Hamedan began to supply the city with water resources. In early September of this year, the Hamedan Provincial Bar Association wrote a letter to the provincial prosecutor, stating that the amount of arsenic in the water from Talvar Dam is so high that it “can even be absorbed through the skin,” and asked the judicial authority to investigate the matter. The association also called on the Hamedan prosecutor to take legal action against those responsible for this matter, noting in its letter that the water crisis in the city is the result of negligence and inaction on the part of the authorities.
In response to the publication of the aforementioned letter, Hamedan Prosecutor Hassan Khanjani Moqar stated that “the safety of water cannot be questioned without investigation and necessary evidence,” and claimed: “Whether this issue is a rumor or a fact; as a public prosecutor, appropriate and immediate orders have been given to those in charge to investigate the truth and accuracy of the matter.”
It is worth noting that in early July of last year, the issue of the illegal level of arsenic in the water of Talvar Dam was raised for the first time in parliament by representatives of this city, which resulted in the authorities' negligence.
On the evening of Tuesday, September 2, a group of citizens protesting the lack of water gathered in Bu Ali Sina Square in Hamedan and chanted slogans against officials who they called incompetent and demanded that the situation be addressed. In response, the governor of Hamedan stated that the project related to the water transmission line to Hamedan had only made 40 percent progress in the last 17 years and claimed: “Water transmission to Hamedan will be completed within the next one or two weeks.”
A resident of Hamedan told HRANA about the water crisis in the city: “While media close to the government state that the duration of water outages in Hamedan is 12 hours a day, the city experiences more than 18 hours of water outages or severe pressure drops every day. Also, in some underprivileged neighborhoods of the city, water outages sometimes last up to 22 to 23 hours a day. The continuation of this situation has increased the concern of Hamedan citizens about the continued lack of access to safe drinking water.”
The citizen continued: “Families living on the upper floors of apartments have experienced much more critical conditions due to the greater drop in water pressure. In recent days, water distribution vehicles have been dispatched from about 20 cities to Hamedan for mobile water supply, and water supply is being carried out by tanker. Meanwhile, the Red Crescent is distributing limited mineral water among households without any specific order or plan.”
The water crises in the country, due to lack of water resource management and insufficient rainfall, have already caused numerous problems for citizens, especially those living in cities with limited water resources or tropical regions.
Source: HRANA
