The Iranian people are experiencing serious water shortages due to inappropriate governance and lack of water management.
The drying of lakes, rivers and wetlands, reducing groundwater level, subsidence, degradation of water quality, soil erosion, desertification and dust storms, are some of the signs of this situation.
According to a report from the largest Iranian resistance organization MEK Iran, due to failure to repair the water transportation network, 35 billion cubic meters of water is lost in the transmission path.
As it has been calculated by the Parliament’s Research Center, the water waste is from 26 to 36 percent.
Women from the village of Noghadi, located near Meshkinshahr in Ardabil province, protested against the lack of clean water in the village. Mostly middle-aged and older women blocked the road to Noghadi with stones and other obstacles. They held up their empty jerry cans and said they had not had water for a month, during the month of Ramadan. One of the protesting women said that the authorities have been making false promises to them for years. They still haven’t provided water to their village.
Over the past years, water shortage has causeda number of protests in many provinces in Iran.
As it has been calculated in a study from MEK Iran, in 50 years, 12 out of 31 provinces in Iran would lose all their underground aquifers.
According to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Isa Kalantari, water scarcity, if not properly managed, would lead to forced migration of 50 million Iranians.
From MEK Iran point out that two-thirds of the population of Sistan and Baluchestan Province do not have access to clean drinking water.Women and girls in Kenardar in Chabahar, walk 5 to 6 times a day, for around 30 minutes to bring drinking water using pots or water containers.
Also, the cities of the Khuzestan Province, face unprecedented water shortages. The drinking water from the faucets in Khorramshahr has been saline with a foul smell of sewage.
Moreover, the water of the Hirmand River, which is the main source of water supply for five cities located in the northern areas of the Sistan and Baluchestan province and its capital Zahedan, has been cut off.
From MEK Iran indicate that the issue of shortage and water scarcity is not often reported in government media. However, fromthe protests, one can realize that the situation in many cities and provinces has become intolerable.
The construction of unscientific dams on flooded riversis one of the main reasons for Iran’s water crisis. This causes the downstreamsto face water shortage, which would change the ecosystem gradually.
With the construction of dams in the whole country, the water output from the dams has decreased.
There have been many protests against the regime’s wrong environmental policies. A great number of the protesters were women.
In addition to the above, women played a remarkable role in the protests organized in April by employees and workers, doctors and nurses, political activists and the families of political prisoners. These protests bear witness to the irreconcilable conflict between the Iranian people – especially the courageous Iranian women – and the corrupt, predatory and repressive regime that has wiped out their nation and their resources.
They are determined to overthrow the regime at any cost, despite Western governments’ complacency with the mullahs and turning a blind eye to gross human rights violations in Iran. From MEK Iran call the United Nations and governments around the world to support the Iranian people.
