Lack of Access to Potable Water in Iran and Its Effects on Health
People in Khuzestan, located on the banks of Iran’s largest river, and seaside towns, face a shortage of drinking water.
As it has been reported from the largest Iranian opposition group, MEK Iran, 107 cities with water scarcity are mostly overpopulated, and 17 million people currently face water scarcity.
Authorities predict that due to lack of water for agriculture, the eastern and southern regions of Iran will be completely deserted in less than 25 years and that 50 million people will have to emigrate.
360 of total 570 springs in Kohguilouyeh-Boyer-Ahmad province, and drinking water points are completely dry in the tribal regions.
The southern province of Kerman, which grows one of the country’s main export products, pistachios, is suffering from a “drought tsunami” and 800 villages are supplied by water reservoirs.
The state of the aquifers in the southern province of Fars, once one of Iran’s major wheat producers, has become irreversible.
Residents of 800 villages in Khuzestan do not have sustainable access to safe drinking water, despite the proximity of five large dams and seven rivers.
Only 19% of the inhabitants of Sistan-Balochistan have access to drinking water. Water and sewerage projects have been half-completed for 30 years. People in some of these areas no longer even have the salt water that once flowed through the water pipes.
Located on the coast of an ocean, the port city of Chabahar is one of the most important cities in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan. However, tankers provide 100% of the water supply to the villages of this city.
Highlighting the acute water crisis in Sistan-Baluchistan province, members of MEK Iranfound that four years ago, a widow was forced to sell her body to provide drinking water for her children. This unhappy woman then committed suicide.
Lack of access to tap water, and its effects on health
The Khuzestan and Sistan-Baluchistan province lacksof dequate plumbing system. From the MEK Iran inform that womenare forced to carry the water they need, which leads to many physical problems. They have to wait in long lines, sometimes even for hours, just to get a bucket of clean water for their families.
In the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, women and other residents face even greater problems, given that the main safety measure to avoid contracting the virus is to wash your hands frequently with water and soap. In addition, bad water poses a health risk and weakens the immune system, making people in this province more vulnerable to the coronavirus.
Deforestation and double desertification
Reports from MEK Iran, which can be found on their website, indicate that the advance of desertification in Iran comes in a situation where the desert area per capitain Iran is more than twice the global average.
According to data collected by the Forestry and Natural Resources Organization, the area of forests in the north has increased from 3,600,000 hectares to 1,800,000 hectares over the past 40 years. Around 100,000 hectares of forests are destroyed each year in Iran.
According to official reports from the Forestry Organization, Iran experienced more than 240 fires in the country’s natural areas between March and June 2020.
