Result of 8 months of missed opportunities: 6 trillion rials in damage to Sistan and Baluchestan's agriculture
The floods in Sistan and Baluchestan have caused 6 trillion rials in damage to the agricultural sector alone. Officials and experts attribute this to “eight months of missed opportunities” in dredging and geometric correction of rivers in the agricultural hub of southeastern Iran.
The total flood damages in Sistan and Baluchestan are estimated at around 10 trillion rials, while some members of parliament and officials said that if there had not been an "eight-month waste of opportunity" for dredging and geometric correction of the province's rivers, the damages in the agricultural sector would not have reached around 6 trillion rials.
Initial estimates for the three sectors of agriculture, urban infrastructure, and roads indicate that the total damage to these three sectors is about 1095 billion tomans. Abbas Ali Arjomandi, director of the Sistan and Baluchestan Governorate's Crisis Headquarters, said that the region's infrastructure and agricultural sectors suffered the most damage.
According to IRNA, Habibollah Dehmardeh, a representative of Zabol in the parliament, attributed the damage to the lack of attention to river dredging and said that if appropriate infrastructure had been provided, given that flooding in Sistan and Baluchestan was predictable, we could have prevented the damage.
Warnings of heavy rainfall in Sistan and Baluchestan province began last week. The province's meteorology department had predicted rainfall of between 50 and 90 millimeters, and in some places, more than 100 millimeters.
Earlier this year, Sistan and Baluchestan province was hit by floods, and at the same time, the provincial crisis management headquarters approved dredging the rivers, but according to Dehmardeh, no dredging action was taken from eight months ago until the recent flood.
Eight months ago, Mohammad Hajrasuliha, CEO of the National Water Resources Management Company, expressed concern at a meeting of the Sistan and Baluchestan Water, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Working Group regarding the accumulation of wind-blown sand in various parts of the province after a period of drought, and said that the province's rivers must be dredged.
In the same meeting, the geometric correction of rivers was also raised as another challenge and bottleneck in the province. According to IRNA, Atabak Jafari, CEO of the Sistan and Baluchestan Regional Water Company, considered its implementation a priority for managing the province's water resources.
"You can't advertise while dredging a river"
With all these warnings and emphasis on dredging, it is unclear why the responsible organizations did not take action to dredge and correct the geometry of the rivers to at least reduce the amount of damage in the recent flood.
Hedayat Fahmi, a former water resources expert at the Ministry of Energy, told some media outlets: "There is no publicity for the authorities in dredging rivers. That is why such an important issue is not being implemented well in the country."
At the same time, he considered the river dredging funds to be a "negligible amount" that is not proportionate to the level of rivers in the country.
The greatest damage to agriculture
In the recent flood, the rainfall volume at 17 rainfall stations reached 100 to 186 mm. This is while the rainfall volume in a crop year in Sistan and Baluchestan is about 100 mm. As a result, the agricultural sector of this province was damaged and crops ready for harvest were submerged in the flood.
According to Gholam Haidar Zourghi, head of the Sistan and Baluchestan Agricultural Jihad Organization, the recent flood caused 613 billion tomans in damage to the province's agricultural sector.
Farms, gardens, aqueducts, access roads to farms, water and soil facilities, livestock and animal husbandry, traditional streams and irrigation canals, watershed dams, fish farming ponds, and fisheries facilities are among the damaged sectors in the agricultural sector.
The counties of Konarak, Nikshahr, Chabahar, Qasrqand, Delgan, Mehristan, Sarbaz, Bampour, Fanoj, Soran, and Khash also suffered the most damage in the agricultural sector.
The most damaged crops were tropical and semi-tropical fruit orchards, off-season crop farms, and livestock farms in the province.
332 billion Tomans, damage to urban infrastructure
Initial estimates from the provincial crisis management headquarters indicate that flood damage to urban infrastructure in about 24 municipalities is about 332 billion Tomans.
Meanwhile, Ayub Kord, Director General of Road Administration and Road Transportation of Sistan and Baluchestan, has reported damage of 150 billion tomans to the road structure and technical structures of the northern half of the province.
Following the flood that began on the evening of Thursday, January 9, in parts of Sistan and Baluchestan, a large number of villages were submerged, and it is said that there is no news from 50 villages and settlements. There is no way to communicate with them, and the situation of the people is dire.
Source: DW
