Preparing to resettle "100,000" flood displaced people in Khuzestan

On Sunday morning, authorities continued to warn residents of parts of Khuzestan province to evacuate their homes due to the risk of flooding, and some officials reported that many residents were refusing to leave their homes.

Domestic news agencies are reporting the evacuation of 174 cities and villages due to flood fears in Khuzestan.

These news agencies also report the settlement of more than 2,000 residents of Hamidieh, Khuzestan, in army units and the preparation of camps to accommodate 100,000 people in Hoveyzeh and the outskirts of Hamidieh.

According to IRNA, Hamid Silavi, Director General of Foreign Nationals and Refugees Affairs of the Khuzestan Governorate, also said that "with the coordination of the Crisis Headquarters, six camps have been established to accommodate foreign nationals affected by floods in the province in the cities of Dezful, Andimeshk, Mullasani, and Gotvand."

He did not explain the reason for the separation of the flood-affected camps for foreign nationals and Iranian citizens.

In recent days, Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has said that 400,000 people in Khuzestan province are at risk of flooding.

It is also reported that due to flooding, the Ahvaz-Shush transit road has been closed and 14 rural water supply facilities in Shushtar County have also been taken out of service.

251 power towers and substations are also at risk from flooding in Khuzestan, and flood-affected people are facing water, electricity, and gas outages.

The flood has also caused 30 billion tomans in damage to the nomadic sector of Khuzestan.

According to the IRNA news agency, the second Kuwaiti plane carrying aid from that country to the flood victims arrived in Iran this afternoon. According to the report, the aid from Kuwait on Sunday includes 40 tons of food, 1,000 12-meter tents, 2,000 one-month food baskets for each household, 2,000 blankets, and 100 water pumping units.

Authorities warn of evacuation

On Sunday morning, the governor of Khuzestan once again called on the citizens of Susangerd, Bostan, Rufa'i (Kavah), Kot Seyyed Na'im, Hoveyzeh, and Hamidieh to leave their places of residence "as soon as possible."

On Saturday evening, Gholamreza Shariati said in an interview with Iranian Television that the water entering the Karkheh Dam had not decreased, contrary to predictions, and that some of the dam's water had been drained to prevent overflow.

According to Mr. Shariati, "There are problems in some villages of Shushtar, Susangerd, Hoveizeh, the outskirts of Dez, and the Karkheh River, but so far, water has not entered the cities of the province."

He finally said, "By carrying out engineering work, we are trying to prevent water from entering the cities of the province, or if it does, to keep it to a minimum."

He emphasized on Sunday, "The reason we are asking the people of these areas to leave their homes is the increase in water output from the Karkheh Dam."

On Saturday, videos were posted on social media that, according to the publishers, show water overflowing from part of the side wall of the Karkheh Dam.

However, Peyman Jahangiri, the governor of Andimeshk, called these reports "false" and said that "the Karkheh Dam is currently stable and its inlet and outlet have been managed."

On Saturday, the Karkheh River also overflowed, causing water to advance towards the Ahvaz-Andimeshk road.

Officials have said that villages west of Karun in Khorramshahr should also be prepared for evacuation.

Since last week, with the forecast of possible flooding in Khuzestan, orders have been issued to evacuate cities and villages in Khuzestan in several stages, with the most recent being the evacuation of six cities: Hamidieh, Susangerd, Bostan, Abu Hamiza, Kot Seyyed Naeem, and Rafi.

According to Hamid Qovidel, a representative of the Red Crescent Society in the flood-hit Khuzestan province, 102 villages in 9 counties in the province have been evacuated.

Mr. Qovidel also said that 29,414 people from these villages have been given emergency shelter in 39 camps in 9 counties in Khuzestan Province.

On Sunday, the representative of Ahvaz in the Islamic Consultative Assembly said: "People in the camps do not have very good conditions. In some cases, three families live in one tent."

Meanwhile, Reza Zeinivand Moghadam, Director General of Education of Lorestan Province, reports that 19 schools in Pol-e-Dokhtar County, both in the city and in the countryside, have been completely destroyed by floods.

70 people killed in floods

On Saturday, Ahmad Shojaei, head of Iran's Forensic Medicine Organization, announced that 70 people in 13 provinces had died due to flooding.

According to Mr. Shojaei, Fars province has the highest number of flood victims with 21 deaths, Lorestan with 15 deaths, and Golestan and Hamedan with 8 deaths.

According to this report, six people have died in Mazandaran provinces, three in North Khorasan, two in each of Qazvin, Kohgiluyeh, and Boyer-Ahmad provinces, and one in each of Khorasan Razavi, Khuzestan, Semnan, Qom, and Kermanshah provinces.

According to the Iranian Meteorological Organization's forecast, the new precipitation system that entered the country on Friday evening will be active on Saturday and Sunday in all provinces of Iran except Hormozgan and Sistan and Baluchestan, but the most precipitation will be in the two provinces of North Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi.

Rouhani criticizes issuing construction permits on riverbeds

President Hassan Rouhani, at a ceremony in Tehran on Sunday, called issuing construction permits in riverbeds "trading people's lives for dirty money."

He stated: "I raised a case with the mayor of Tehran regarding several residential units that were built in the middle of the river just outside Tehran, and it is truly surprising who gave the permit, in what form, and for how much money."

Mr. Rouhani added: "Although, God forbid, that corrupt establishment has received money, it has bought a great risk for the lives of the people of Tehran. This is not just a matter of money, but rather a matter of exchanging people's lives for dirty money."

Meanwhile, according to ISNA news agency, Ali Salehi, the public and revolutionary prosecutor of the capital of Fars province, announced the summoning of a number of "possible culprits" in the Shiraz flood incident. He did not elaborate, but said that additional news on this matter would be announced in the future.

Iran's Foreign Ministry criticizes the United States

On Sunday, Bahram Qasemi, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, complained that the US government had closed the accounts of the Iranian Red Crescent, saying: "The US government is responsible for the devastating results of the recent floods in Iran."

He added, of course, "As you know, it is not possible to close the Red Crescent's accounts because it is a humanitarian institution, but ultimately the United States prevented foreign aid from reaching Iran, whether from Iranian compatriots abroad or from other nations."

Source: Radio Qarda