Former Ministry of Energy Official: About 13 Percent of Khuzestan Dams Have Water Resources

A former Ministry of Energy official said on Tuesday, September 27, that the volume of water resources in Khuzestan dams is “low” and if “fundamental action” is not taken, the province will face “water stress” again.

According to Mehr News Agency, Hedayat Fahmi, former deputy director of the National Water and Wastewater Planning Office, said: “About 13 percent of the dams in Khuzestan province have water resources, and if no significant rainfall occurs as predicted, Khuzestan will face serious problems.”

Fahmi criticized “temporary” methods of dealing with water shortage, such as water supply by tanker truck, and stressed that long-term solutions should be sought through “creating infrastructure and modernizing” the water supply and distribution network and water and sewage systems in Khuzestan.

Khuzestan in the current summer faced widespread protests in various cities following the worsening of the water crisis, which continued continuously for two weeks. The protests spread to other cities and provinces, and following the suppression of protesters, they continued with slogans against the entire Islamic Republic.

One week after widespread protests over Khuzestan’s water shortage, a member of the presidium of the Islamic Consultative Assembly said: “Where in the world do they build 25 steel companies in the desert of a country and then transfer thousands of kilometers of water to develop that area?”

Iranian officials have promised to resolve the water shortage problem in Khuzestan, but so far no specific and comprehensive plan has been introduced in this regard.

Karim Hosseini, representative from Ahvaz, in September of this year stated that the Environment Organization is working on a plan called “Vanc Solgan” which he described as “an unjust, illogical, and unprofessional” plan to issue permits for water transfer from Khuzestan, and emphasized: “I inform the president and also the interior minister as the senior minister that as long as water transfer is discussed in governments, the people of Khuzestan are dissatisfied and the first impeachment of Islamic Consultative Assembly representatives should not end with the power minister’s name.”

He said that implementing this government plan would lead to the impeachment of the power minister in parliament.

Source: Voice of America