Power outage continues in parts of Ahvaz

Meanwhile, reports have been published about power outages in some other cities in Khuzestan province, including Abadan and Izeh.

According to ISNA news agency, Hassan Karimi, CEO of Ahvaz Electricity Company, announced on Sunday, June 18, that "the fundamental electricity problem in Ahvaz regions has been temporarily resolved."

Mr. Karimi also said that “only a small part” of the city still has power outages.

He urged citizens not to use any electrical appliances other than cooling devices.

According to Tasnim News Agency, after the temperature rose to more than 50 degrees Celsius on the evening of Saturday, June 17, and excessive electricity consumption, a power transmission substation in Ahvaz caught fire and another part of the power transmission equipment in the city was damaged.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud Roozbahani, deputy head of the Ahvaz Fire Department, announced that the fire at the Sepidar power substation in the city was contained after four hours on Saturday evening.

Tasnim news agency also reported that electricity has been cut off in parts of Abadan since Sunday morning. There has been no report on whether electricity has been restored in these areas.

Also, according to Fars News Agency, electricity and water in Izeh city have been cut off several times in recent days.

While news agencies and Ali Sari, a representative of Ahvaz in the parliament, have announced that the temperature in the city is over 50 degrees, the Khuzestan Provincial Crisis Management Organization has announced that the temperature in the city is 49 degrees.

The organization also announced that, based on the governor's decision, the working hours of Ahvaz offices will be from Sunday to Wednesday, until 12:00.

According to reports, last week, a protest by a group of female students at Shahid Chamran University in Ahvaz over the breakdown of the dormitory cooling system escalated into a confrontation with the intervention of university security.

Gholamreza Shariati, the governor of Khuzestan, has called for action against the "factors" who are ignoring the students' demands.

In the last week of February 2016, electricity and water were cut off in Ahvaz and a number of cities in Khuzestan Province due to a dust storm, and a number of Ahvaz citizens gathered in front of the governor's office several times.

Following these protests, the Khuzestan Police Command issued a notice banning any gathering in front of the Khuzestan Governor's Office.

At the time, the state-run IRNA news agency reported that following these events, Hashem Baldi, the director general of the governor's crisis management, and Shahriar Bazrkar, the director general of Khuzestan's natural resources, had been dismissed.

After these events, on March 23, 2016, the First Vice President of Iran notified five ministries and organizations of the Cabinet's decision to allocate 30 billion tomans for the purpose of "stabilizing critical dust centers" in the short term.

In addition to the dust crisis, the issue of unfit drinking water in some cities in Khuzestan and plans to transfer water from this province to neighboring provinces have also led to protests in recent years.