He says we had no solid plan for Khuzestan. He states that “environmentalists have repeatedly warned about the future of Khuzestan,” and adds, “the problem is that we gave the Great Marsh to the Ministry of Oil and they came and dried a part of it. Why did they dry it? To come and find oil in the Great Marsh.”

A dam is one of the ways to exploit water resources in a watershed; however, many environmental experts have described dam construction in the country as destructive rather than beneficial. Dr. Esmaeil Kheram, an environmental activist, told Khat-e-Solh magazine, “We have built dams that should not have been built. At least one-third of these dams were unnecessary and were built in vain.” He also mentions the water situation in Khuzestan province, saying, “Dez, Karun, Karkheh, Jaraahi, and other major rivers could have been useful for Iran, and with the water they provided, we could have had enough water for eighty million people, but we destroyed them. We destroyed them, and as a result, Khuzestan, which is thirsty, unfortunately remains without water.”

We read below a detailed conversation about dam construction and water crisis in Iran with Ismail Kahrampour, an Iranian environmentalist and activist.

These days, we hear unpleasant news from Khuzestan province. Unpleasant news that, of course, environmental activists had warned about for years. In your opinion, what have we done to Khuzestan that has led to this situation? In other words, what are the contributing factors to this disaster?

We had no written plan for Khuzestan. A school has a written plan for holding its classes; today is composition, tomorrow is math, the day after is geometry, and so on. But we had no plan for Khuzestan. We had warned them. We, the environmentalists, had all warned them, but unfortunately, they never paid attention to these warnings and never thought about it. The problem is that we gave the Great Marsh to the Ministry of Oil, and the Ministry of Oil came and dried a part of the Great Marsh. Why did they dry it? To find oil in it. Then they said we will drill test wells in the Great Marsh to extract its oil. But then, unfortunately, the Chinese and the Japanese came and estimated the cost. The Chinese said we will dry a part of the Great Marsh, and the Japanese said we will do it on the coast. But because the Chinese had offered a cheaper estimate, we went with them and they

On the other hand, we diverted three rivers that were directly going to Khuzestan, like Dez and Karun, they separated from Khuzestan and went away; meaning they no longer brought their water to Khuzestan! Therefore, we ourselves emptied Khuzestan of water with our own hands. Even though Khuzestan has five main rivers: Dez, Karun, Karkheh, Jarahi, and… These were the main rivers that could have been beneficial for Iran, and with the water they provided, we had enough for eighty million people, but we destroyed them. We destroyed them and the result was that Khuzestan, which is thirsty, unfortunately remained without water. On the other hand, Khuzestanis believe that they have been treated unfairly by the government. Why? Because the government looks at them with a biased view, with an Arab view, and with a foreign view. Therefore, they do not pay attention to

According to the latest information from the Iranian Water Resources Management Company, more than 600 dams have been put into operation in 31 provinces of the country, with 146 dam construction projects underway and 537 dams under study. Environmental activists believe that dam construction has had detrimental effects on the biological, social, economic, and environmental aspects of a large portion of the population, and has disrupted their lives. What do you think are the damages caused by all these dams in Iran?

We have more than 650 dams in our country. We have built dams excessively in our country. Dams that were not necessary and solved no problems. These are unnecessary and excessive. This is while before the revolution in 1979, we only had 13 dams in the country, and now we have more than 650 dams. Also, consider this: the conditions for building dams in the country were such that we were building one dam every week! Now, let’s really see how many of these dams were necessary and how many were not. But why did we build dams that were not necessary? To put money in the pockets of some people; to make money if they didn’t build dams. They built dams to eat! So we built dams that we shouldn’t have. At least one-third of these dams built in the country were not necessary and were built in vain. At least one-third!

Some believe that incompetent managers have taken control of all water resources for themselves, their connected individuals and companies, and dams, worsening the situation with climate change and drought and forcing farmers to leave their lands. How much do you know about this issue?

It is definitely correct. Because someone who is a farmer or a livestock owner cannot work without water, and currently at least one-third of our dams are concrete walls that are dry on both sides. These are the largest civil engineering projects in Iran; meaning that for example, for seven years straight, every day, two hundred people were working on building a dam! Then we imported the turbines that we don’t produce from outside the country. See for yourself how expensive it is. Dam construction, along with petrochemical, bridge construction, asphalt work, etc. are among the most expensive projects in Iran; we have done these actions and built them. And all this without being able to benefit from them economically, socially, and agriculturally. You can see how much waste has been done in this area.

Environmental activists believe that dam construction in Iran is mostly done with a one-sided perspective, causing environmental problems such as deforestation, increasing wildfires that we are currently witnessing in Iran, dust storms, water shortages, drought, and more. Despite these warnings, some wrong policies such as reckless water transfers, dam construction around lakes like Lake Urmia and its drying up, the extinction of the Hoor Al-Azim wetland, the Shadegan wetland, the transfer of the Karkeh River to central provinces, and the problems with the Gotvand Dam have been implemented! With all this pain and suffering, what solutions do you propose for improving the environmental situation in the short and long term?

See, we should not expect a short-term solution. If someone has this expectation, they are either deceiving themselves or want to go to sleep like a rabbit; when a rabbit sleeps, because its eyelids are short, they do not close completely and a person thinks they are awake. Now, different animals also think the rabbit is awake and are afraid to attack it. This is a defensive gesture. Now, if someone thinks they can solve this problem in the short term, as the saying goes, they are called blind.

مهر

Saadi says:
Saadi says:
Sitting in the heart of the beloved, one cannot turn away from the beloved.

It means that Saadi says throughout the years and times, we fell in love and love settled in our hearts. Then he says this human will not be free unless time passes. Now you see, due to years of recklessness, foolishness, lack of planning, corruption, and playing with the fate of people, they have raised their money and built a dam without even needing it. They built the dam just to fill their pockets. The army and others. Now suddenly we cannot expect a miracle. We cannot shake the magic stick to make everything go back to its place and become right. This is impossible.

If I am responsible for the water conditions in Khuzestan, I will start sending water tankers to the villages. I will provide water for the villages. Because everything can be replaced, except for water. Water must be delivered to the villages in Khuzestan by tankers. Currently, 700 villages in Khuzestan are being supplied with water by tankers. For example, they tell the people in the villages that water will arrive on Wednesday. The people leave their villages, go to the main road, and because they are not informed about the arrival time of the tankers, they wait in line. In the line of people, sometimes there are fights and arguments, sometimes there are marriage proposals, and sometimes there are weddings… Currently, 700 villages in Khuzestan are being supplied with water by tankers.

Well, this water will be for people to drink and people in villages cannot use it for agriculture and animal husbandry.

Yes, this water is only for drinking and these people don’t even have water for washing. They don’t even have water for their own hygiene… In Iran, about seven thousand tankers are filled and provide water to about seven thousand villages in eight provinces of the country. And this is only for drinking water. You see, in our water distribution, we see that a large amount of water is used for agriculture. About 90 to 92 percent of water is used in the agricultural sector. 5 to 6 percent is used in industry and only 3 to 5 percent is for drinking water. Even the water from tankers is included in this small percentage of drinking water consumption. Now the government comes and cleverly says that if a housewife leaves the tap open, they say don’t waste! Where is the waste? A housewife’s total water consumption is not more than 3 to 5 percent of the total water consumption and does not cause much damage. The

Okay, how are the uncontrolled water transfers going? For example, the transfer of water from Karkeh River to central provinces…

It was planned to transfer water from the Mazandaran Sea to Semnan and Damghan, but the cost was so high that no one accepted it. First, they went to the Ministry of Energy, and the Ministry of Energy asked, “With what money?” They called it a mega project and no one went under its burden. The Environmental Protection Organization wanted to go to the Ministry of Energy, which is responsible for water and electricity, but they did not accept it either. Of course, it should also be considered that everyone wants to take water to their own homeland. Mohammad Khatami, during his presidency, wanted to take water to Yazd and Kerman because he was from there. Or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Rouhani, during their presidency, wanted to take water and transfer it to Semnan because it was their homeland. These people do not think like Iranians. One thinks like a Semnani and the other like a Damghanian! If I were in charge

Are we witnessing a situation in Khuzestan today that will lead to even more serious crises in other parts of Iran tomorrow? Which provinces do you think will face crises in the coming months and years? For example, in Fars and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad provinces, environmental activists have repeatedly warned about the environmental situation in these provinces and the possibility of disasters, but no one has paid attention to their warnings.

Yes, this is a situation that will worsen over time. Because drought brings more drought and dryness brings more dryness. This means that we will gradually lose our underground water resources and the dry plain will become even drier. So tomorrow will be worse than today and today is worse than yesterday. If this situation continues and drought is not managed, we will reach from bad to worse. For example, when Hamoun lake dried up, this dryness spread to Zabol plain; therefore, Zabol became even drier; when Zabol became drier, the entire region became thirsty; meaning that it can be like a domino effect. If you hit one domino to another, it will cause the fall of the next dominoes. Meaning that over time, this domino effect will take place; dryness will become even drier and drought will become even more severe and it will continue like this unless something is done about it.

Thank you for the time you have given to the peace process.