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\nBy Amir Taghati<\/p>\n
For Iranian people, the name of Khuzestan province has always been synonymous with a fertile plain with rich soil that hosts cordial people living on a sea of wealth.<\/p>\n
Under the ruling of the mullahs\u2019 regime, however, the same fertile land has now turned into an area in which people lack their most basic need, the drinking water.<\/p>\n
Attributing Khuzestan\u2019s water scarcity and its highly saline water to Revolutionary Guards\u2019 plundering and aggression on the province\u2019s water resources, it\u2019s been quite a while that people in the province have been increasingly protesting against the IRGC and their affiliated mafia bands.<\/p>\n
While Khuzestan has historically been among Iran\u2019s water-rich provinces, the situation has now changed, in such a way that people in the province have now raised their voices against the regime as being responsible for Khuzestan\u2019s water crisis.<\/p>\n
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Khuzestan\u2019s water problems actually started during Hashemi Rafsanjani\u2019s term in office about 25-30 years ago, when regime\u2019s predatory bands moved forward with projects to transfer Khuzestan\u2019s water, apparently to other provinces that were low on water resources, but actually to make astronomical profits in the process.<\/p>\n
The projects included building dams without following expert, specialized guidelines, a practice that gave rise to Khuzestan\u2019s water scarcity crisis.<\/p>\n
At the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988, regime\u2019s Revolutionary Guards also entered the province, launching projects that more than ever revealed regime\u2019s hostility towards Iranian people and led to numerous problems in the province, including its water crisis.<\/p>\n
Among the Revolutionary Guards\u2019 projects was the one that aimed to transfer Karun River\u2019s water to the city of Rafsanjan in Kerman Province, for which they built Gotvand Dam around 2000.<\/p>\n
Another project involved draining the Hoorolazim wetland\u2014Hawizeh Marshes\u2014to facilitate exploiting oil fields in the area. That however led to the province\u2019s dust storms and made it difficult for people in the area to breathe.<\/p>\n
Bahmanshir River\u2019s highly salinated water<\/strong><\/p>\n As the main source of water for the two cities of Khoramshahr and Abadan, Bahmanshir River\u2019s water is now so saline and of low quality that the cities\u2019 residents are under pressure due to water restrictions. Besides, the highly salinated water will hurt the farmlands in the area.<\/p>\n Continuous protests in Khuzestan<\/strong><\/p>\n Due to all the above mentioned problems, Kuzestan\u2019s water crisis has reached a critical stage, with people continuously raising their voice against the regime.<\/p>\n People in Khoramshar and Abadan are protesting about the highly salinated water crisis. On June 20, 2018, people in Ahvaz discovered and destroyed the province\u2019s water transfer pipelines. There have also been numerous protests in Ahvaz over the past ten days.<\/p>\n The anti-regime protests in Khuzestan has become so prevalent that one of regime\u2019s MPs on June 13, 2018, acknowledged that \u201cwith 900 protests in the course of a year, Khuzestan is the country\u2019s number one province in this regard.\u201d<\/p>\n Regime\u2019s trick to silence people\u2019s protests<\/strong><\/p>\n The protests in Khuzestan are so widespread that regime\u2019s governor in the province has resorted to a trick, ordering that water usage during the two months of June and July to be free of charge.<\/p>\n That\u2019s quite clear that the tactical withdrawal is only aimed at silencing people\u2019s protests in Khuzestan. But that\u2019s a stupid trick, as exempting the cities\u2019 deprived and thirsty people from paying their two-month water bills is not going to be of any use for them, nor will it bring desalinated water back to the rivers.<\/p>\n So, along with other parts of Iran, Khuzestan is not going to stop raising its voice against the regime until it\u2019s eventually overthrown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Amir Taghati For Iranian people, the name of Khuzestan province has always been synonymous with a fertile plain with rich soil that hosts cordial people living on a sea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":51624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[178],"class_list":{"0":"post-24976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-society","8":"tag-save"},"yoast_head":"\n