One Year After the 2019 Floods; This Year’s Floods in 13 Iranian Provinces Have So Far Killed 11 People
Heavy rainfall in 13 Iranian provinces, from Sunday, March 23 to present, has killed 11 people and caused severe damage to roads, facilities and infrastructure in these regions.
According to reports, several provinces including Hormozgan, Bushehr, Fars, Sistan and Baluchestan, Qom, Gilan, South Khorasan, Semnan and Kerman have been affected by flooding and inundation, and some routes in these provinces have been blocked.
Iran’s Emergency Organization reported that flooding in 13 Iranian provinces has so far resulted in 11 deaths and 13 injuries, with four of the deaths occurring due to tunnel collapse in Mehr city in Fars Province.
The Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization also reported the blocking of 130 rural and secondary roads across the country due to flooding last night. According to Reza Akbari, Deputy Road Director of the Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization, the most significant damages were in southern Kerman cities, Hormozgan, Bushehr and Khuzestan.
In southern Sistan and Baluchestan, the Chabahar-Konarak route and Jask route have had many passages blocked due to flooding.
Hossein Amiri Khamkani, Head of Kerman Province’s Parliamentary Representatives Assembly, also announced that as a result of flooding in five southern cities of the province, electricity and water have been cut off to a number of villages, and more than 100 villages are affected by flooding.
Heavy rainfall in Qom also resulted in inundation in the city, which was accompanied by land subsidence and the creation of a pit approximately 7 meters deep. This incident caused two vehicles to fall into this pit; rescue personnel saved the occupants of one vehicle, but the occupants of the second vehicle, who were three members of one family, lost their lives when the vehicle sank into mud and mire.
In Fars Province, it has been reported that roads to 80 villages are blocked and electricity to 60 villages has been cut off. In Kerman Province, the entrance bridge to Kahnouj city was damaged due to heavy rainfall and rising river water levels in the county.
Heavy rainfall in Kangan, located in Bushehr Province, also caused flooding of streets and people’s homes.
Previously, the Crisis Management Office had warned about the possibility of flooding in the last week of Esfand and the first week of Farvardin in Iran.
Iran faced nationwide floods in Farvardin of 2019. These floods last year resulted in at least 76 deaths in Iran, but officials and managers of the Islamic Republic have not taken effective measures to prevent flooding and inundation and reduce damages in various cities.
US officials have repeatedly warned about Iran’s mismanagement of natural resources and unnecessary and unplanned dam construction aimed at filling the pockets of corrupt officials of the Islamic Republic regime, citing it as a major factor in the emergence of various environmental crises, including devastating floods and unprecedented droughts.
Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State, in May of last year, while expressing support for the Iranian people, said: “We are seeing financial and environmental crises in Iran. Corruption has engulfed the country. The regime is stealing from its own people.”
Bryan Hook, US Special Representative for Iran Affairs, also noted that 600 dams have been built in Iran after the revolution “without any environmental assessment,” stating that the Islamic Republic has destroyed the country’s water resources through mismanagement over the past forty years.
Source: Voice of America
