Head of Iran's Environmental Organization: Water War Has Reached the Provinces and Villages

Referring to the expanding water resources crisis in Iran, the head of the Iranian Environmental Organization said: "The water war has begun between the provinces," and this war is "spreading from province to province, from village to village."

Issa Kalantari, who was speaking at a scientific meeting on environmental policies in Iran on Monday, May 17, named the provinces of "Isfahan, Chaharmahal Bakhtiari, Yazd, Khuzestan, and Lorestan" as areas that are experiencing water wars.

In recent months, however, some Iranian government officials have warned of a drought by announcing a decrease in rainfall in 2019 and a continuation of this situation this year, saying that the water situation in villages in different regions of Iran is facing an even greater crisis.

Ismail Najjar, head of the Crisis Management Organization, announced on May 2 that drinking water will be supplied to more than 20,000 households in 7,000 villages across the country by tanker.

Officials from the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad have also pointed to a 40 percent decrease in rainfall in the country in 2019, stating that by the end of last year, only four provinces in the country had normal rainfall.

In his speech today, Issa Kalantari also said that of the country's rivers, only two, the Karun and the Sefid Rud, are alive and reach their destinations, and that "20 billion cubic meters" of water is over-extracted from natural resources and groundwater annually.

He predicted that by the year 1420, "there will be no trace of agriculture" in the lands around the Zagros Mountains and south of the Alborz to the southern seas and eastern borders, and that Iran's nature will have "fallen victim to the country's macro policies."

The head of Iran's Environmental Organization has criticized policies such as self-sufficiency that lead to plunder and encroachment on resources, saying: "The country is disappearing" and "those responsible for the last 40 years" must be held accountable for destroying nature.

Previously, Mostafa Fadaeifard, a member of the National Committee for Large Dams of Iran, had also said that Iran had overcome the water crisis and had reached "water bankruptcy," but the country's officials were not aware of this situation.

According to this expert, the amount of precipitation in Iran is about one-third of the global average and the rate of water evaporation in Iran is about three times the global average, and a significant part of the crises in Iran are due to mismanagement.

A 2019 assessment by the World Resources Institute showed that Iran is at the top of the list of countries facing an “extraordinary water crisis” and is on the brink of “the doomsday,” the day when water resources could run out. The report ranked Iran fourth among countries close to the “doomsday.”

Water shortages and water transfer projects in some provinces of Iran have repeatedly led to protests and subsequent clashes between people and the police in recent years.

For example, in March 2018, farmers in the Varzaneh region in eastern Isfahan repeatedly demonstrated and gathered to protest water shortages and the failure to allocate water rights.

During these protests, a number of farmers, while attending Friday prayers, turned their backs to the Friday prayer leader and, while strongly criticizing the policies of the Iranian government, chanted: "Back to the enemy - facing the homeland."

Since then, protest rallies regarding water shortages have been held in Borazjan, the center of Dashtestan County in Bushehr Province, in the Kazerun region of Fars Province, the Yasuj region in Kohgiluyeh Province, and Boyer Ahmad and the city of Saman in Chaharmahal Bakhtiari Province.

In another case, during the 2016 clashes in Baldaji County, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, a number of farmers were arrested and one person lost his life for protesting a water transfer project.

Following this incident, a court in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province sentenced 76 farmers protesting the water transfer project to four months in prison and 30 lashes each.

Source: Radio Farda