20 Days After Sistan and Baluchestan Floods; Risk of Malaria and Dangerous Animal Diseases in Chabahar

The occurrence of floods and torrential waters is sometimes devastating and even fatal; however, more bitter are the unfortunate consequences of this event over time and months after. When the floodwaters have receded and the initial severity of the crisis has diminished, in reality a new wave of damages, similar to what has emerged in Sistan and Baluchestan these days following last month’s floods, is approaching.

Mehr News Agency reported that due to rainfall, floods, and waterlogging in the months of Dey and Bahman in 8 cities and hundreds of villages in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, seasonal rivers overflowed and a number of communication routes were blocked, and homes of people in the cities of Chabahar, Chabahar, Sarbaaz, Nikshahr, Dashtiari, Fanuj, Qasrqand, and Delgan in the south of the province were flooded.

IRIB News Agency also reported on the 25th of Dey, citing the Deputy of Civil Affairs of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, that in recent rainfall, Chabahar city “rained in four days as much as four years of rain” and wrote: “The flood in the south of Sistan and Baluchestan Province has caused more than two thousand billion tomans in damages.”

The Chabahar administrator told Mehr: “Given the recent rainfall, in addition to the significant damages inflicted on the infrastructure of Chabahar city, a number of residential homes of citizens have been damaged” and at the same time “water has seeped into more than 2,000 homes in Chabahar city.”

Abdolghafour Hoot continued by noting the low rate of 100 percent destruction of residential homes across the city, saying that nevertheless, around two thousand families are still suffering from post-flood problems even after this period of time.

In images that ISNA News Agency published today on the 11th of Bahman from this flood-stricken area, it is clearly evident that after about a month has passed, many flood victims are still suffering from the lack of basic living facilities and numerous post-flood problems.

Given that the flood occurred in the first month of winter and the cold season, now with the weather getting colder and the living conditions of many families in this region being unsuitable, there is a possibility of diseases and acute health problems occurring, especially since Iran has entered the sixth peak of coronavirus spread with the global expansion of the Omicron variant.

The Chabahar administrator said in this regard: “Given the stagnation of water in some areas of the city, the risk of malaria outbreak is very serious and requires serious and immediate measures.”

On the other hand, the director general of veterinary affairs of Sistan and Baluchestan Province told Mehr: “Given the recent floods in the south of the province, there is a possibility of the outbreak of some animal diseases in this region.”

Mehdi Hosseini added: “Due to the conditions created after the floods, the conditions for the outbreak of some dangerous and fatal animal diseases in this region have intensified, which requires the vigilance of the people and officials.”

In Ordibehesht month of 1398, IRNA News Agency also wrote in a report “In the recent Lorestan flood, 18,000 Lorestani residents lost their jobs and became unemployed. In Poldokhtar, which had the most damage from the floods, approximately 70 percent of the businesses in this event were destroyed, and many related and indirect businesses were also affected due to infrastructure damage.”

Given that several major and minor flood events occur annually in different parts of the country, it seems that attention to the damages and problems after the water recedes by establishing a specific and operational mechanism is an important and vital need for these areas and their people.

Addressing the set of damages in the days after the flood becomes twice as important because typically government and state officials, in the peak of media attention and public interest in the incident, assess the process of aid and relief as “positive”; but shortly after, there is no news of them, and it is the people of the affected areas—such as 2,000 families in the Chabahar region of Sistan and Baluchestan Province—who have to deal with new problems for which they lack the preparedness and means to confront them.

Source: Voice of America