Islamic Republic Destroying the Environment

Update1:Widespread Disregard For The Environment

The Kavir park situation is not exceptional in Iran. Earlier this year, the government decided to divert water in connection with the Sivand Dam in the southern Fars Province -- against the protests of environmental and heritage activists and at the risk of damaging nearby archaeological sites and grazing grounds.

And the daily "Etemad-i Melli" lamented on August 26 that the government has given the go-ahead for the construction of petrochemicals plants and a refinery in three provinces of the northern Caspian coast. It cited two petrochemical projects in the Golestan and Gilan provinces and a refinery in Mazandaran and expressed alarm that "the location of those projects is none other than the forest and the swamp!" It reported that the petrochemical plant in Gilan -- which it said is on hold -- would destroy 120 hectares of forest if it resumes. Seven to eight hectares have already been razed to start the project.

Hossein Akhani, a botanist and academic from Tehran University has written a long appeal to the head of the state Environment Organization, Fatemeh Vaez-Javadi, to point out the damage to soil, water, and the health of local residents that the Golestan project would cause. Akhani wrote that the swampland of Sufikom, near the planned plant, would dry out and become a dust bowl, "Etemad-i Melli" reported.

He wrote that the Golestan petrochemicals plant might generate jobs and money for some, but it would destroy the local environment and lead to long-term and more generalized poverty and sickness for locals. He compared it to the destruction of the Aral Sea in the 1970s by Soviet planners who used that sea's waters to irrigate cotton crops in Central Asia.

Yet, another national catastrophe for Iran Bakhtgaan Lake is drying up

Read the Daily Destruction of the environment in Iran:

Members of the environmental NGOs protesting in front of the Iranian Department of Environment and showing their dissatisfaction with the environmental policies of the current government. Most of them are unhappy with how forests, mountainous areas and natural resources of the country are being destroyed and not being taken care of properly.More pictures here.

Bakhtgaan lake that has an important and national role in the preservation of natural habitat and environment is on the verge of drying up due to haphazard planning and construction of a few dams and government's negligence. Some parts of the lake have already turned into dried salty soil and the rest of it will follow suit soon.


Committee's Comment: One of the sources of water for this lake is the Pulvaar River that its flow has been stopped by the construction of Sivand Dam, whose lake has already drowned many archaeological sites and now threatens the Mausoleum of Cyrus the Great.

h/t to Winston