![\"148359_994\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/148359_994.jpg\" "\\"148359_994\\"")
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NCRI Staff<\/p>\n
NCRI –\u00a0It\u2019s nearly four decades since the Iranian regime came to power, and water scarcity has turned to an imminent disaster as well as a social crisis, so that according to regime\u2019s head of National Security Committee, \u201cthe country\u2019s water crisis has practically raised into a security issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 40 thousand Iranian villages have become inhabited, with their once residents now living in misery and poverty in marginal areas of big cities.<\/p>\n
Regime officials acknowledge that close to 94 percent of the country is suffering different degrees of drought, and that the three provinces of Khuzestan, Qom, and North Khorasan are almost entirely affected with severe and extremely severe drought.<\/p>\n
The situation has deteriorated so much that head of regime\u2019s Department of Environment \u2018Isa Kalantari\u2019 acknowledges the disaster, saying \u201cno enemy would\u2019ve done what we did to our natural resources and the environment, were they ruling Iran during these years.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Kalantari as an advisor to regime\u2019s president Hassan Rouhani has made these comments, he himself is responsible for the current disaster. As Agriculture Minister, Kalantari was hand in hand with regime\u2019s water mafia during 1989-2002, being directly involved in plundering the country\u2019s resources by adopting an excessive dam-building and water well drilling policy under the pretext of supporting farmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe country\u2019s annual water input is 88 billion cubic meters, while the annual water consumption is 97 billion cubic meters. This has caused the exploitation of the country\u2019s renewable water resources to reach 110 percent, which is quite deplorable.\u201d says Kalantari.<\/p>\n
Forced to reveal the country\u2019s \u2018water mafia\u2019, Kalantari then says \u201cundoubtedly, many knew since three decades ago that the country\u2019s water policies were wrong, but they decided to remain silent and not to protest.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur pundits\u2019 silence with regard to our wrong water policies has cost the country bankruptcy in the water sector. Many officials refused to oppose the country\u2019s wrong water policies and even stepped forward in favor, since those policies served to raise their profits.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMajor blows have been dealt to the country\u2019s environment and natural resources over the past decades, so that Iran is now among the countries with the highest rate of soil erosion, exploitation of water resources, desertification, and so forth. Today, there\u2019s not a single living wetland or lake in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wonder why there\u2019s an increased volume of haze in the country. We have to admit that Iranian cheetah is doomed to extinction, just like many other Iranian extinct species. The number of Iranian cheetahs has dropped from 112 to just 47. That\u2019s because they can\u2019t find food, since the plant eating animals included in cheetah\u2019s diet are missing as there\u2019s no proper vegetation for them to feed on.\u201d (State-run ISNA news agency, October 15, 2017)<\/p>\n
Although the confessions by head of regime\u2019s Department of Environment are by themselves quite illustrative and no further explanation is needed, but referring to other acknowledgements mad by state media describing the current situation of Iran\u2019s environment could help better understand the disaster:<\/p>\n
– In an article titled \u201c94 percent of the country is struggling with drought\u201d, the state-run ISNA news agency writes on August 9, 2017, \u201cwhile maintaining that there\u2019s no single area in the country that is untouched in the long run by some degree of drought, head of Meteorological Organization\u2019s National Center for Drought and Crisis Management acknowledges that nearly 95 percent of the country is suffering from drought, of which 11 percent is mild, 39 percent is medium, 33 percent is severe, and 13 percent is too severe, and that only half a percent of the country is experiencing wet years.\u201d<\/p>\n
– State-run Shabestan news agency released an article titled \u201cthe story of Yazd Province\u2019s drought\u201d on October 14, 2017, writing\u201dmore than 226 thousand people in 333 villages across Yazd province have access to healthy water. But due to recent years\u2019 drought and water shortages, supplying water for more than 81 thousand people in 295 villages is carried out using 455 fixed and 16 portable water tanks.\u201d<\/p>\n
– State-run Ghods-Online news agency headlines \u201cDry Tsunami ravages Kerman: where\u2019s the officials\u2019 effort?\u201d on October 14, 2017, writing \u201cWhile Kerman\u2019s water supply is on the alert level and aside from the official\u2019s surprising and historic ignorance towards addressing water scarcity in the province, there\u2019s still an ongoing excessive exploitation of the province\u2019s water resources and the main part of the country\u2019s agricultural products are produced in a province which is faced with a water supply challenge.<\/p>\n
According to a regime\u2019s MP from Kerman, supplying water for nearly 800 villages in Kerman province is now carried out using water tanks, and the number of drought affected villages which are losing their population is increasing on a daily basis. If nothing is done about the province\u2019s water supply problem, living conditions in the province will be faced with a major challenge in the next five years, so that even drinking water will be supplied with difficulty.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been predicted that due to an ongoing drought, Kerman province will be faced with new major challenges such as increased immigration, marginal settlements, and so forth.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement regarding the country\u2019s water disaster, Iran\u2019s Council of Resistance maintains that \u201crather than making optimal use of the country\u2019s available resources, capitalizing on four seasons\u2019 opportunities, and harnessing solar and wind energy, the Iranian regime is squandering country\u2019s wealth on oppression, war, and exporting terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact is that without effective investment in the country\u2019s water sector, modernization of agricultural irrigation system, and banning the Revolutionary Guards from making dams, and as long as Khamenei keeps squandering the wealth belonging to Iranian people on cross border interventions and costly wars, not only the country\u2019s water crisis won\u2019t be resolved, but it will deteriorate as well, and the ultimate liberation from the most dangerous enemy of Iranian people won\u2019t be possible but through a total collapse of the regime.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NCRI Staff NCRI – It’s nearly four decades since the Iranian regime came to power, and water scarcity has turned to an imminent disaster as well as a social crisis, so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":50038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[178],"class_list":{"0":"post-23752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-society","8":"tag-save"},"yoast_head":"\n