Recent rainfall has caused flooding in 16 provinces of Iran; damage from the April flood is still ongoing
Following recent rainfall in various cities in Iran, the head of the Red Crescent Relief and Rescue Organization announced that 16 provinces in the country have been flooded. Reports indicate that the provinces that were flooded in Farvardin have not yet been rebuilt.
Morteza Salimi, head of the Relief and Rescue Organization, announced on Tuesday, November 29, that since November 1, 16 provinces of Iran have been affected by floods, including West Azerbaijan, Alborz, Isfahan, Bushehr, Tehran, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, South Khorasan, Zanjan, Semnan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Qazvin, Qom, Lorestan, Markazi, and Hamedan.
Reports indicate that due to the heavy rainfall last night and day and the rising water levels in the rivers, the communication between the villages of Ben Lar and Ziyadar in the Moqmalan district of Lorestan province was cut off, but Lorestan highway authorities say that "traffic routes are currently open."
Also, images published on social media indicate flooding in some cities in Lorestan province.
Hamidreza Kazemi, a representative of the people of Pol-e-Dokhtar - a city that faced a severe flood in Farvardin - also said that "the rains of the last few days have damaged and sometimes destroyed rural roads and bridges that were damaged in the previous flood and have not yet been fully reconstructed."
However, Gholamreza Aghamirzaei, Director General of Crisis Management for Lorestan Governorate, said on November 26 that "there is currently no credit to pay for damages from new and future floods."
The autumn rains have raised concerns about the recurrence of the floods of Farvardin, while according to the national flood report for March 2018 and April 2019, a total of 25 Iranian provinces, including 200 cities and 4,304 villages, were affected by floods and river overflows, and more than 60,000 urban and rural units were destroyed.
More than 75,000 urban and rural residential units were damaged in these devastating floods, and many of the damaged areas have not yet been fully reconstructed.
In this regard, Saeed Taheri, Secretary of the Khuzestan Provincial Banks Council, despite the promises made to flood victims on June 4, said that "given the lack of the necessary mechanism in this regard, the continuation of loan payments to flood victims was postponed until after the issuance of specific instructions and contracts."
The floods of April killed at least 76 people in Iran.
Environmental crises in Iran have long attracted the attention of the international community. US officials have also repeatedly warned against the mismanagement of Iran's natural resources, widespread deforestation, and unnecessary and unplanned dam construction aimed at lining the pockets of corrupt officials of the Islamic Republic regime, citing it as one of the main factors behind various environmental crises, including devastating floods and unprecedented droughts.
For example, not long ago, Brian Hook, the US Special Representative for Iran, pointed out that 600 dams have been built in Iran "without any environmental assessment" after the revolution, and announced that the Islamic Republic regime has destroyed the country's water resources through mismanagement over the past forty years.
Source: Voice of America
