News

Another Deadly Sandstorm – Government Mismanagement led to Rivers and Wetlands Drying up

The Al-Ahwaz region is ravaged by a serious of heavy and deadly sandstorms covered all Al-Ahwaz region with deadly sandstorm which left 5 people dead and thousands in hospitals.
Ahwaz’s dust level is 120 times the safety limit set by the WHO (World Health Organization). The director of the Meteorological Organization in a telephone conversation with a TV program first confessed that the amount of dust in the afternoon of Tuesday in Ahwaz was 120 times the safety limit set by the WHO (World Health Organization), while the last reported figure was 60 times higher.
Therefore, administrators should be held accountable by the judicial system for this concealment and the lack of truth to the citizens.
The sandstorms and the pollution left Mohammad Maramazi 5 months old on the side of the hospital bed. He will never wake up again.
The reason for the sandstorms and region pollution is due to all the water diversion and drying up the Rivers and Wetlands.
Here is the Ahwazi water diversion history that were implemented by IRGC company named as “Khatam-o-Alanbya”;
Koohrang tunnel #1, the project started from 1948 and ended up on 1954. This tunnel transferred 225 to 320 millions cubic meter of water to Zayandeh Rud River. Its was implemented and started working during Pahlavi regime.
Koohrang tunnel #2, the project started from 1973 and ended up on This tunnel transferred 250 million cubic meter of water to Zayandeh Rud River, and it were implemented by both Pahlavi regime/Mullah regime.
Koohrang tunnel #3, Its design began in 1991 and its operation as diverting water started in 1998. This tunnel transferred 250 to 300 million cubic meter of water to Dez River during Mullah regime.
Qom Rud River, Its design began in 2003. it transfers 181 million cubic meter of water from the Aligudarz River to the Kuchi dam and its refinery. The design of the transfer of water from the branches of Dez to Qom is one of the largest projects. Qom was receiving 2500 litter water per second, but Qom’s water usage is 3500 litter per second. The cost of this project was more than 7,000 billion Rials.
The Koocherei tunnel is still on progress with cost of 600 billion Rials which Qom will get about 6000 litter water/s.
Golab tunnel; it implementation started on 2005 were it designed to transfer 1.7 cubic meters by second to supplies the cities such as “Bidgol” and “Kashan” and “Aran”. The name of the transferring waster project “Golab” has been taken from the village that was near the project and the tunnel has destroyed the village completely. The water transferring projects all been designed, implemented, operated and supervised by Iranian revolutionary guard affiliated company named as “Khatam-o-Alanbya”.
Beheshtabad tunnel; This plan was implemented by the Islamic Consultative Assembly in 2005 and its executive operation was officially launched with the presence of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the project was put into the construction site. In 2012 the cost for the project was 2,000 billion Rials were approved to complete the Beheshtabad tunnel. The implementation of the plan was suspended in 2016 due to the protest of the representatives of Khuzestan in the tenth parliament and due to lack of environmental permits. The purpose of this project is to transfer one billion cubic meters from the Karun basin to Isfahan and Yazd.
Vanak Water Transfer Plan: The project was approved in 2002 with the aim of transferring 342 million cubic meters from the Vanak-Sulang Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari reservoir to Rafsanjan Plain.
Worth noting that Ali Amouri in a conversation with an Iranian pro media in Ahwaz, referring to the drought and a severe shortage of water in the Ghizaniyah section, said: “40 villages in Ghizaniyah are facing serious lack of water in supplying drinking water and water reservoirs are empty.
The government mismanagement is causing those deadly sandstorms.

Ahwazi Centre for Human Rights
Written by Ali Bouazar
Date: 18/02/2018

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button