Despite warnings by experts, year after year the situation has worsened as water supplies have been shrinking and the government has failed to come up with a serious water-management solution.

During the past two years, while officials have been constantly talking about the impact of United States sanctions on the country’s economy and the adverse effect of the coronavirus pandemic on people’s livelihoods, many newspapers and comments by experts warned about the impact of drought and the excessive use of groundwater by thousands of illegal wells. In August 2018, the head of Iran’s environmental agency, Issa Kalantari warned that 70 percent of the population is facing serious water shortage.

Coupled with water scarcity is feared power cuts as the weather gets warm and air conditions swing into action. In fact, part of the electricity shortage is due to drought and lack of hydroelectric power. Roughly, 25 percent of power generation relies on dams that are less than half-full this year. Officials said this week that the country has received 50 percent less rain this winter and spring.

During the past week, many have been complaining about long hours of power cuts in Tehran and other cities. Teachers have been complaining that their online classes and exams have been affected by the blackouts.

At the same time many others including filmmaker Manijeh Hekmat complained that their aircon systems and refrigerators have broken as result of recurring power cuts.

Several social media users in Iran have also pointed out that the blackouts dangerously affect patients connected to ventilators and oxygen machines.

Since 2020, when it was first revealed that some entities including the Revolutionary Guards and their Chinese partners were using about ten percent of the energy Iran generated for cryptocurrency mining, complaints took another form and at once turned into opposition with the government and its secretive deals with China.

This comes while, media reports during the past days have indicated that Iran is using Bitcoin farms and cryptocurrency farming to circumvent US sanctions.

A recent Reuters report said that around 4.5% of all bitcoin mining in the world takes place in Iran “allowing the country to earn hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies that can be used to buy imports and lessen the impact of sanctions.”

According to the economic website Tejarat News, Tehran needs $30 billion and 10 years to leave behind the water crisis. This translates into 500 million barrels of oil at the rate of $60 per barrel. However, currently, as a result of US sanctions, Iran cannot sell that quantity of oil and even if it does, it cannot repatriate the money.

As the summer approaches, Iran’s hydro-electric power plants go off the grid one by one causing major blackouts and many in high rise buildings cannot get water. This comes on top of high inflation and the impact of the pandemic.

While officials such as Ardakanian attribute the shortage to lack of precipitation this year, which has reduced electricity supply by 3,000 megawatts, Iranians who find it difficult to trust officials are inclined to believe that it is greedy Bitcoin farming that is leaving homes in darkness.

Mismanagement of water resources and engineering endeavors have been once again highlighted during the past week as new pictures show a dried out Karoun river in Khouzestan. The river used to irrigate tens of thousands of farmlands in southwestern Iran until the past decade, but salination as a result of dam building at the wrong place has ruined the river and a left a magnificent bridge that leads to nowhere.

Besides lack of access to clean water, there are many other Iranian regime policies which marginalise Ahwazis and cause suffering to the rural residents

Typically, water shortages occur when the amount of drinkable water doesn’t meet the requirements for the population in question. The Ahwaz region in the south and southwestern Iran, however, has an abundance of rivers, such as Karoon, Karkheh and Jarahi [Ref], which collectively comprise the largest source of fresh water in Iran [Ref], even one of the largest in the Middle East. However, due to a number of policies deliberately enacted by the Iranian regime, a large number of citizens in Ahwaz is suffering from a drinkable water crisis. Water mismanagement – or water hostage policies – by the authorities are part of a broader set of intentional policies designed to displace and impoverish Ahwazi residents. Why would a government do this to such a productive proportion of their resources and population? This is the question Ahwazis hope journalists will pay more attention to. It is being done in order to alter the geopolitics of the region in respect of its native Ahwazi people, whom the government in Tehran view with a mixture of disdain and suspicion. Consequently, Iran’s policies have caused many agricultural areas to be deserted and a number of residents of rural areas displaced [Ref]. The continuation of this policy may continue to result in prolonged droughts, starvation, and large-scale deaths in Ahwaz, with those in rural areas particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

According to the United Nations, at least two billion people worldwide do not have access to safe drinking water. Such a water crisis in Iran is also on the rise, but the residential areas in Ahwaz suffer disproportionately more than other regions across the country. Water is actually withheld from their people and traditional industries, so many parts of the region are on the brink of a severe shortage of drinking water.[Ref] While environmental experts have confirmed that the situation with regard to deteriorating water levels in Iran is chronic, the situation in Ahwaz is at a critical stage and continues to deteriorate due to deliberate policies. In July 2018, the Washington Post reported that Iran (including Ahwaz region) is “heading towards a large-scale water crisis,” and that there are “few ways to tackle the crisis”. The article indicated that mismanagement by the country’s authorities played a major role in facilitating the calamity, which continues to worsen. 

A number of Iranian officials in Ahwaz have acknowledged the seriousness of the crisis and the lack of desire to end the water crisis. “Many cities in North Ahwaz (Khuzestan in Farsi) are on the verge of a drinking water crisis,” Ali Reza Qarineh, Deputy Director of Ahwaz Water and Sewage Company, said at a meeting of the Water and Electricity Council in the governorate. He stated that “with the exception of the city of Ahwaz, the capital, the water of the remaining cities of Ahwaz is provided with 70% of surface water resources and 30% of wells water, whereas there are around 171 wells  water in North Ahwaz.”, meaning that there is a disproportionate lack of  water in Ahwaz, despite its natural resources.

According to Qarineh,” drinking water is provided for 19 cities in the north of Ahwaz from the Karoon River, 13 cities from the Karkheh River, two cities from Jarrahi, two cities from Zohreh, and four from other rivers. Additionally, he states that “in 2017, 130 million cubic metres of groundwater was extracted from Ahwaz, which has decreased by 34 per cent in 2018.” [Ref] The decline before March 2019 was between 50 and 55 per cent of groundwater, despite heavy rains and flooding in Ahwaz.

Hidayatallah Khademi, the representative of the city of Izaj (Izeh) and Orwah (Baghmalek) in the Iranian Parliament, said in an interview with Borna News Agency: “If the water crisis is not solved in Ahwaz, residents must migrate to other cities in Iran.” 

“The water issue in Ahwaz has become an acute problem. The reason is clear. The improper management over the years, the uncontrolled extraction of groundwater, land subsidence, changing the course of the rivers to other cities in Iran and dozens of other reasons have affected the quality of drinking water in Ahwaz.” [Ref]

“If the crisis in rural water is not managed in Ahwaz, it will become one of the future crises in the region,” said Director General of Crisis Management in Ahwaz, Kiomars Hajizadeh. Currently, several counties within the governate, especially the rural areas, are experiencing a water crisis. These include the villages in Ramiz (Ramhormoz), Arjan (Behbahan), Khalafiyeh, Falahiyeh, Amidiyeh (Omidiyeh), Masjed Suleiman, Abadan, Muhammarah and Ahwaz, the capital. He pointed out that compared to 2018, 2019 has seen a 367 per cent increase in water flow to dams – comprising an additional 42 billion cubic metres of water. By comparison, in 2018, only 9 million cubic metres of water was available for Ahwazi citizens, the rest, therefore, having been diverted. In spite of this dramatic surge in water flow, many people in Ahwaz still suffer from severe shortages. [Ref]

In addition to shortages, Ahwaz suffers from widespread pollution in its water supply. Poor sanitation and lack of waste treatment plants have resulted in water that isn’t fit for consumption. Similar to the shortages, this too disproportionately affects the rural areas of the region. Multiple reports have indicated that many citizens suffer from skin, respiratory and cancer diseases as a result of consuming the region’s water. 

The Iran government has so far shown no concern and made no plans to alleviate these issues for the population in Ahwaz.

Gheyzaniyeh

Gheyzaniyeh district, located 45 km south of the capital, Ahwaz, is severely affected by the water crisis. Failure to provide water risks with the mass migration of many citizens to other areas, where their displacement will lead to a host of issues, such as unemployment, poverty, and homelessness. It is posited by many that this is the intention of the Iran government, as part of their wholescale persecution of Ahwazis.

Dr Gill Leighton, a Professor in Political Science, agrees. She comments: “The world is currently paying multinational organisations like the United Nations and the World Health Organisation to investigate and intervene in issues like water shortages throughout the world. There is ample evidence that man-made and deliberate policies which discriminate against the Ahwazi people have directly resulted in desertification and severe regional water and health crisis. The UN and the WHO, whilst occasionally expressing ‘concern’ about the Iran regime’s actions, has not attempted to alleviate this situation or stand up against it. It is time they, and other human rights organisations, start urgently advocating on behalf of Ahwaz and its population, before even more damage is done.”

 Approximately 25 thousand people reside in 89 villages across the Gheyzaniyeh district. The region is home to over 600 oil wells, which should theoretically provide its Ahwazi inhabitants with the potential of better living condition and meaningful employment. Despite the presence of the wells, and the Karoon River, just kilometres away from the rural district, its citizens have suffered from water shortages and unemployment for years; their repeated calls for change have not been met by the Iranian regime, although these demands constitute part of the “right to life, liberty and security of person” in respect of the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights, which, according to Dr Leighton, “Iran signed in 1967, yet since then, and particularly after 1979 and the coming to power of Ayatollah Khomeini, hardly any part of this Declaration has been observed in respect of Ahwazi people.”

After years of follow- up to resolve the crisis by communicating with the MPs in the Iranian Parliament, the Municipal Council, the Iranian Governor in Ahwaz, the Ministry of Energy and the rest of the Iranian state institutions – citizens in Gheyzaniyeh desperately protested the policies of the Iranian authorities. On the day of the demonstration, citizens blocked the highway between the city of Ahwaz and Ma`shur to protest against the shortage of drinking water. However, security forces with weapons attacked the demonstrators in an attempt to disperse them, which resulted in the injury of a number of citizens, including children, and the arrest of many others. Observers believe that the failure to provide water to Ahwazis in Gheyzaniyeh is a deliberate policy, not only because of mismanagement. The intentional policy aims to compel citizens to emigrate in order to erase the Ahwazi identity in Ahwaz. All of these actions are serious transgressions against Ahwazis in Iran and amount to ongoing discrimination, persecution, poverty, displacement and loss of life.

Similar protests have been witnessed in other Ahwazi areas in recent weeks, as residents of Umm al-Tamir village located in the west of Ahwaz City, the capital, protested against the regime’s failure to provide drinking water amid the coronavirus pandemic, necessary for basic hygiene as well as observing WHO worldwide recommended protocols for slowing the virus’s spread and loss of life. Residents in the village organised protests, which quickly expanded to other rural areas. However, they were unable to achieve their goal of obtaining clean drinking water. As the rest of the world snapped into action to help their citizens, Ahwazis have been a shocking exception, because of their ethnicity.

Observers pointed out that in the past months there was a widespread water crisis in Rofaye town of Khafajiyeh district (Missan) and the village of Al-Ruwaidat Sofla in Khalafiyeh, although the two areas have an abundance of water, evidenced in the Jarrahi and Karkheh rivers. Water is simply not being allowed to flow to its citizens, but directed elsewhere. Observers also confirmed that the continuation of this policy must lead to the return of large-scale protests such as occurred in Ahwaz between November 2019 and February 2020, in which dozens of civilians were killed and injured. In December 2019, the US State Department announced that Iranian security forces had killed at least 140 protesters in the city of Ma’shur.

In an interview with DUSC, an Ahwazi resident said that “the situation in Gheyzaniyeh and the rest of the Ahwazi areas is miserable, and this crisis is on the rise.” The resident added that he was one of the many Ahwazis who migrated from his village two years ago and is currently suffering housing and unemployment issues due to the loss of agricultural lands he owned. He stressed that the Iranian authorities aim to displace the Ahwazi residents of Gheyzaniyeh in order to depopulate them from the belt of Ahwaz City, the capital. He rejected the premise that the water shortage is a naturally occurring one, instead confirming it is due to the regime’s mismanagement, as Ahwaz is a wealthy land in water resources. Moreover, the crisis has spread beyond rural areas and to cities that have freshwater sources such as Muhammarah and Abadan.

It is worth noting that in the past few weeks, hundreds of people took to the streets of the city of Muhammarah to protest against the government’s inaction about the quality of water in that city. There were reports of protest marches in the city of Ahwaz, Ma’shur, and Khor Musa, as well as clashes in Abadan, where Iran’s largest oil refinery is located.

In fact, almost all rural areas of Ahwaz are experiencing a water crisis, although most of these villages are adjacent to Karoon river. For example, Kot Sayed Saleh rural area in Kot Abdullah county, west of the capital, Ahwaz, suffers from a shortage of drinking water, as this situation has caused a humanitarian crisis in the region. A citizen of Kot Sayed Saleh told DUSC that residents of the town and the surrounding areas are buying water because they do not have clean water to drink, even lacking enough running water for washing. He added that what little amount of water that is provided is often polluted and smells foul. He said that the water is unsafe even to be given to animals and trees. 

This claim was echoed by another citizen from Kot Sayed Saleh, who reports that the government provides them with a small amount of mouldy water every two to three days. Another citizen added: “Even during the winter, despite the presence of rain, we suffer from a lack of water for washing and drinking,” she said. “We followed up with the officials, but we did not get any solutions to end the crisis.” This situation is untenable amid the COVID-19 pandemic as it puts many more lives of men, women and children at risk during this time.

Environmental experts in Ahwaz noted that one of the reasons for the water scarcity is due to the construction of large-scale unscientific dams in general by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. They said that since 2013 there have been weekly protests, but it is clear that no results have emerged to resolve the crisis.

 In a recent provocative move, the Iranian regime changed the name of the Ahwazi village of Gheyzaniyeh to Qassam Soleimani to honour the terrorist recently killed in a US airstrike. Rather than meeting the local demand for clean water, the regime prioritises self-serving propaganda. Thus, the regime amply underscores its lack of concern for the Ahwaz residents. Even water shortage, much less near-complete lack of access, has an impact on the local agriculture, the health of the residents, livestock, and the local economy. Unless the current situation is addressed promptly, the people will continue to face death, disease, or be forced to migrate elsewhere due to the water shortages. Although the Ahwaz governor Gholam-Reza Shariati claimed that the residents will be granted access to clean water within two weeks, so far nothing has happened. The locals have been left to fend for themselves, while the likelihood of the restoration of essential services remains remote. Many similar promises have previously not been upheld by the regional and national governments.

Nouri Hamzah, an Ahwazi expert on Iranian affairs, said that “the Iranian regime is obstructing the lives of Ahwazi citizens by not providing job opportunities and fundamental rights such as drinking water.” Hamzah explained that “the Iranian regime in this policy aims to undermine the psychological as well as family and economic stability of Ahwazi citizens. Therefore, the objective of all these policies is to expel Ahwazis from their homelands and force them to migrate to other regions in Iran. Consequently, the regime seeks to make Ahwazis a minority in their homeland to prevent them from posing any threat to regime interests in Ahwaz, by coercively or forcibly evacuating them and replacing them with other ethnic groups.” 

Nouri Hamzah added that Iranian authorities provide housing, work opportunities, health centres and all life services to Persian speaking settlers in all Iranian settlements in Ahwaz. However, the regime does not provide the basics rights to life such as drinking water to Ahwazi citizens. Therefore, this policy is not due to mismanagement of resources by the regime, but rather a deliberate policy of dangerous discrimination that has been in place for decades against Ahwazi people. Hamzah noted that the Iranian regime prohibits development in Ahwaz, and this indicates that the regime is continuing with a policy of changing the demographics in Ahwaz, saying that “all elements of the Iranian regime, such as the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Presidency, all ministries and the Supreme National Security Council agree on this policy.” 

International Law 

On 28 July 2010, through resolution 64/292, the United Nations General Assembly explicitly recognised “the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realisation of all human rights.” The resolution calls upon states and international organisations to provide such financial resources, help capacity-building and technology transfer to help countries, in particular developing countries, to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all.  It can therefore clearly be seen that the Iran regime is violating international law and denying basic human rights to Ahwazis.

In November 2002, the United Nations’ Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted General Comment No. 15 on the right to water. Article I.1 states that “The human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite for the realisation of other human rights”. Comment No. 15 also defined the right to water as the right of everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable and physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses. [Ref]

Mahmoud Abohosh, an Egyptian expert on political affairs, in an interview with DUSC said that “the right of Ahwazi citizens to have access clean water for drinking is a social right, and this, of course, obliges the authorities in Iran to provide services to facilitate the life of the citizen, such as the right to water. Access to clean water is guaranteed as a social right.” However, in reality, Ahwazi citizens, in general, face deliberate neglect and the policy of systematic deprivation and forced displacement at the hands of Iranian consecutive governments with the aim of alerting the demography of Ahwaz. This policy is continued in accordance with the Iranian regime’s vision of ending the native Ahwazis presence in Ahwaz.

Therefore, Ahwazi citizens – even in their native homeland – are forced to endure Iranian regime building dams on Ahwazi rivers.  These dams are more properly characterized as water diversion projects which deliberately bypass Ahwaz and instead transfer the water to other Iranian cities to support their local agriculture, provide drinking water, and supply factories in ethnically Persian regions in central Iran. This is, in fact, a core part of the regime’s marginalisation policy against the people of Ahwaz, in order to destroy their lives through weaponising water. This is completely contrary to international treaties and covenants, even ones the Iran government signed to uphold.  They must guarantee this right to Ahwazi citizens.

Conclusion

The Iranian regime is violating the international law by denying Ahwazis access to clean drinking water. This policy goes against the fundamental right to life in Ahwaz. It also causes deliberate and unjustifiable suffering to residents of Gheyzaniyeh and other areas in the Ahwaz region. Lack of access to water is, and will continue to impact the life and economy of Ahwazis for the foreseeable future. The majority of Ahwazis live in rural areas and villages, as aforementioned, making their living as farmers. Their agriculture and livestock are heavily dependent on a consistent water source. Moreover, the situation is exacerbated by the context of the rapidly spreading corona infection and related conditions imposed on Ahwazis as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its mismanagement by the regime.

Besides lack of access to clean water, there are many other Iranian regime policies which marginalise Ahwazis and cause suffering to the rural residents. Three experts in this report have clearly demonstrated that what is happening in Ahwaz is a violation of international law and human rights. Whether or not the cause of this lack of access is due to “mismanagement” or to malicious intent, is ultimately irrelevant, since the outcome is the same. The Iranian regime has a well-documented policy of using violence and propaganda in response to the demands protests of citizens concerning access to water. One example is the attack by government forces on the demonstrators standing up for their fundamental rights in Gheyzaniyeh.

If the current poor performance in providing services is due to mismanagement, the problem should be quickly solved through the MPs representing the region and the interests of their constituents. If, on the other hand, the root cause is racism, then the problem can only be solved by changing the Iranian officials in Ahwaz. The persistence of the problem and the consistent lack of response to a critical situation of water pollution all point to the likely intentional pattern of discrimination. The regime likely justifies and engineers these social issues as part of its long-term agenda of ethnic cleansing and Ahwazis depopulation of Ahwaz. Hence, poor services and lack of safe drinking water, the illogical placement of dams, and the seemingly reckless diversion of rivers, as well as employment discrimination are well-crafted plans by the regime to target the Ahwazi identity. In the meantime, the Iranian government advances its agenda with impunity as the international community and human rights NGOs stand silent.

Article first published on Duruntash Studies Center.

Kamil Alboshoka is an Ahwazi researcher and international law specialist. He tweets under @KAlboshoka.

The local Ahwazi population is denied its most foundational rights, with the Iranian regime even reserving jobs at the oil and gas refineries on their land to those identifying as ethnic Persians…

The water crisis is worsening in what should naturally be the water-rich Ahwaz region. In the city of Chobeideh, 30 years of acute water shortages have recently been exacerbated. Its residents have to travel 35 km to Abadan city – home to one of the largest oil refineries in the Middle East – simply to purchase water for drinking and washing. While Abadan has been the source of much of Iran’s exports, its native Ahwazi population have not received any economic benefits from its presence and still lack essential services like running water. They have received nothing from the state except eight years of war against neighbouring Iraq, followed by rounds of displacement without any reconstruction of their destroyed homes and villages.

In this video taken on June 1, residents of Chobeideh voice their complaints: “it’s summer, and the weather is scalding. How long should we continue (to live) with this problem? Chobiedeh never has any water. If we could, we would have been using hand pumps to draw water for our homes, but we don’t have those either. Otherwise, there is no water. Some people are even buying water for washing. We don’t have any water, and the pipe water is unsafe for drinking. We don’t have any water. No one has come to see us (please come and investigate our problem). The pipe water is salty, and there is no clean water to drink. There is no water, how can I explain it? We buy water every two days in about 60,000 Tomans.”

In this second video, also taken on June 1, locals state the following: “the main pipe has no water. We have been struggling to draw water from it, but there is no water at any time – day or night.” The reporter asks how the villagers attempt to deal with this problem and inquiries into whether or not they resort to using tankers to extract water. The man replies: “I swear, that’s it. We have been without water for seven months. Using electrical pumps to draw water has proven extremely dangerous as well, as local residents have gotten electrocuted and died. My 27-year-old uncle was one of them” (the people who died).

Likewise, in the nearby rural area of Jafir, Ahwazi residents are suffering from severe water scarcity. On May 30, a group of people from the Bani Saleh district of Neysan in Howeyzeh city blocked the main road leading to a collection of local oil and gas wells and refineries, known collectively as the Jafir oil wells, in protest at the suspension of water services for months. 

Dismayed with the state’s neglect of their essential services, protesters have threatened that unless action is taken immediately to rectify the water situation, they will consider sabotaging the oil and gas facilities to prevent staff from working there. Any such actions could potentially disrupt oil production, which serves as the Achille’s Heel of Iran’s embargoed economy. According to the locals, the rural lands possess vast oil-gas fields, yet the Ahwazi villagers do not have access to clean water and essential health services.

The people of the marginalised Jafir rural area, 50 kilometres west of Ahwaz city, told Dur al Untash Studies Centre (DUSC) that although regime officials have visited several times to talk with the local population about the severe hardships they face due to water shortages, especially in the scorching summer heat, they have delivered nothing but empty promises and lies. Instead, their inaction has been underlined by public photo-ops and disingenuous assurances. 

Locals also said that they have voiced their discontent repeatedly to staff within the oil and gas companies working in the area, with management officials likewise pledging to resolve the issue without taking any action. 

The local Ahwazi population is denied its most foundational rights, with the Iranian regime even reserving jobs at the oil and gas refineries on their land to those identifying as ethnic Persians, most of whom are incomers brought to the region by the Iranian regime. These workers are given homes in ethnically homogeneous settlements and provided with facilities not available to the locals. This has led to the bleak observation, common amongst Ahwazis, that while the regime’s elite in Tehran reaps the financial benefits, all they have received from the vast oil and gas resources situated on their ancestral lands is pollution and disease.

For more than ten years, local people have complained of water shortages, adding that when water is available, it is mostly foul-tasting – acrid and saline in summer, and discoloured, muddy, and foul-smelling in winter.

MPs have frequently raised the subject of the water scarcity in parliament, and it has even been covered in the media. However, it is still unclear how long the Ahwazi inhabitants, whose province is renowned for its great water and energy resources, must wait for healthy water. 

The state of the water supply and of the water and sewage network and infrastructure in Ahwaz is unfit for use. Most of the dilapidated network routinely breaks down due to disrepair. It is insufficient to cope with the population growth since it was first installed decades ago.

These problems have led not only to shortages of drinking water, but to several epidemics of previously eradicated diseases like Hepatitis A, Shigellosis, Salmonellosis and Typhoid, transmitted via organisms in the polluted and untreated water reservoirs. On one occasion, in 2018, more than 180 residents of a village in the region were poisoned by drinking contaminated water.  

Speaking about the protest on condition of anonymity, one local protester said, “we are disappointed with the authorities’ hollow promises, and we see no solution other than closing the road leading to the oil companies.” Although the area, where temperatures routinely exceed 120 Fahrenheit in summer, is dotted with massive oil and gas fields and refineries, producing over 50,000 barrels of oil and more than 6.5 million cubic metres of natural gas daily, the indigenous Ahwazi people live in abject poverty. None of the local Ahwazi population reaps the benefits of the immense detailed mineral wealth in the region (which houses more than 95% of the oil and gas resources claimed by Iran). The Iranian authorities monopolise control over these reserves.

.#Iran regime is causing ecological disaster by diverting & damming rivers. Water supply in #Arab southwest is polluted & undrinkable. When #Ahwazi people demand clean water they are violently repressed. More evidence of anti-Arab racism https://t.co/kVsccaRw56 Via @samireza42

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) June 2, 2020

But Abadan and Jafir are not the only areas suffering from extreme water shortages. On May 24, in   Gheyzaniyeh, 40 km east of Ahwaz city, violent clashes erupted between the local Ahwazis and security forces belonging to the Iranian regime. The outburst, which saw Ahwazis cut off the main road to protest continuous water cuts and scarcity of drinking water, was prompted by prolonged indifference of the authorities in the face of repeated pleas for assistance by the locals. 

The Iranian regime brought in its security services to break up the protest by force. The security apparatchiks attacked the demonstrators with batons, wounding many citizens, including a child. They proceeded to beat up a number of protesters and wounded others by shooting at them. As a result, multiple Ahwazis were arrested.

Rather than helping the affected citizens, the regime responds to complaints by denying any problem. The authorities routinely withhold the official statistics on levels of water pollution as though this might make the problem itself disappear; this is the same head-in-the-sand approach it adopts to other grave environmental problems in the region such as air pollution and the frequent dust storms due to drying up the region wetlands.  

Ecological disaster as a result of dams and tunnels Project

According to official reports, more than 40 dams and tunnels have been constructed on water sources and basins of rivers in the Ahwaz region, including the Karoon, the Karkheh, and the Jarahi, all of this to divert waters into the Iranian heartland.

These studies have proved the involvement of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in the establishment of twenty-five dams on the springs of Karoon river, seven on springs of the Karkheh, and eight of the dams are on the Jarahi.  

Firms affiliated with the IRGC, are also working on 19 dams on the Karun river, as well as 12 others under construction on the Karkheh river, and five on the Jarahi river, with another 1,400 projects under consideration for future development.  

One example of the violation of rights of citizens to adequate water is fully illustrated in the rural district of Gheyzaniyeh, which includes the countryside of both Gheyzaniyeh and Mosharrahat, an area housing nearly 26,000 people in 90 villages.

The district contains an oil refinery, plus more than 20 firms working in the oil industry sector for extracting oil, all supporting the Iranian economy. Such industry relies on vast amounts of water. Whilst people living in the region of Gheyzaniyeh have received numerous promises about having the network of water extended to the area and to 42 other villages in the vicinity, none of these promises have materialised on the ground.  

Officials have always claimed to be heeding to the demands of the people, but all attempts at solutions to supply adequate water have failed. 

In fact, field studies indicate that the number of villages in Gheyzaniyeh and Mosharrahat has decreased to 75, after residents in 15 villages fled their homes due to a severe water crisis.  

Many times, people living in the area have demanded heavy transporters deliver them water. However, after only four arrived from other sources rather than the government, officials made vague promises to deliver fifteen.  

Even according to Iranian newspapers, officials had promised to increase the number of tankers, but even after such publicity, no water was ever delivered. Officials in the regime admitted that people living in the area had legitimate grievances, the director of Gheyzaniyeh district, Shahin Hashemi, stated that water supplies carried by tankers, only reached 42 villages, out of 90 villages in the area.  

As a result, after exhausting all government channels open to them, with their pleas being totally ignored, these violations have forced local people to protest, during which they have blocked main roads between cities on several occasions. But frustratingly for those involved, these protests have brought no benefit whatsoever to those living in the area, and no changes at all in the distribution of water.  

As a result of lack of water, desperate people have taken to the streets, and during these legitimate peaceful protests, security forces have reportedly brutally beaten, injured and fired tear gas canisters and live rounds into the crowds to forcibly disperse them. 

Various social media platforms have documented many of the protests that have taken place in the area, highlighting criticism laid against the government for its repressive policies in the face of such protests.  

Despite the protests of the people and the uproar this issue has caused in both local and global media outlets, and despite decisions made by the Iranian president and the governor of the Ahwaz region, Gholamreza Shariati, to make drinking water available to these villages, the citizens of this vicinity still continue to suffer through not having access to their fair right to water.  

These dams are a flagrant breach of the rights of the Ahwazi citizens to water sources, depriving them of their natural, societal and collective right to water. The building of such dams is also in total disregard by the Iranian administration of rights accorded to all citizens and recognised by the international communities. These rights are protected during wartime. Given the Ahwazi situation of decades of oppression by the Iranian regime, they fall into that category.

These rights were implemented as a safeguard to those living under occupation, rights that have been written into international humanitarian law, applied at times of war, outlined by the Hague Statutes approved in 1907, and verified once again in Geneva, after being signed and agreed at the Second Geneva Convention of 1945.

According to the text of these laws, the Iranian occupying state has no sovereign rights over the Ahwaz region, which it annexed in 1925. Under the definition of these rules, the authority exerted by the Iranian state in this region, is nothing more than a temporary status that has been forced upon the Ahwazi people, who had no option but to accept it.

Ahwazis were never given an option of a referendum to decide their legal status; it was decided for them by the British.

As far as the building of dams, IRGC forces have been actively constructing them since the era of former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was in office from August 3, 1989, until August 3, 1997.

Where the damming of Ahwazi rivers is concerned, the Iranian authorities have never consulted with water experts in neighbouring countries such as Iraq, to discuss what the negative impact these dams would have in their countries. Rather than hold dialogue with the countries concerned to discuss such issues, the Iranians have always taken unilateral decisions, looking out for their own self-interest.

For Ahwazi people, access to drinkable water should not be used as a political tool, by which to force them from their homes. Also, the Iranian authorities should not be threatening the Ahwazi citizens, by exploiting their need for water in the home and for personal purposes, in return for inflated sums of money, when fair access to water is a right enshrined in international law.  

The cost should never be a barrier hindering Ahwazis from acquiring secure sources of water. Customers should only have to pay reasonable costs for drinking water, and should be supplied with enough to meet their basic needs.  

But with conditions such as they are, Ahwazis are unable to obtain water at an appropriate cost, which has become very burdensome to those with little money to spare. As a result of this, in the Gheyzaniyeh district, poor families have been shackled by hefty costs in return for adequate water supplies.

Recommendations

Activists at the international forums laid out recommendations for Ahwazis to obtain their rights to water as follows:

First: The Iranian authorities should implement the covenant of a committee on the economic, societal and cultural rights to water and fully abide by its commitments to submit reports.

Second: The Iranian authorities should make available the right of the Ahwazi citizens to water in a sufficient way to ensure life, dignity and health of citizens.

Third: Children in Ahwaz should never be deprived of their human rights, due to lack of water in their educational institutions and households, and they should never bear the burden of having to fetch water.

Fourth: Indigenous people such as Ahwazis should be protected, with their right to obtain access to water resources in the lands of their forefathers, being assured. Water should also be protected from pollution and encroachment. Plus, countries should provide indigenous people with resources to set up facilities to extend and control water.

Fifth: The Iranian state should, according to covenants, act in accord with a constant and unchanging duty to move in a quicker and more effective way to fully implement the right to water.

Sixth: The implementation of the right to water, like any other right of the Ahwazi citizens, involves three types of commitments that should be honoured by the Iranian state: Commitment to respecting, commitment to protecting and commitment to implementing access to the right to water

Seventh: The Iranian state should ensure that it shall shoulder the responsibility for the costs of water. It should implement the necessary measures which ensure:

1) Using a host of low-cost techniques and technologies.

2) Implementing appropriate policies of pricing such as providing water for free or at a low cost.

Any sum that shall be paid to get water should be based on the principle of equality, and it should ensure the financial capacity of all segments of society, including underprivileged groups, to pay the cost of these services, whether provided by public or private entities.

Article first appeared on Duruntash Studies Center.

Rahim Hamid is an Ahwazi author, freelance journalist and human rights advocate. He tweets under @Samireza42.

Mostafa Hetteh is a writer and journalist: He tweets under @Mostafahetteh.

Editing by Penina Sarah, attorney, human rights advocate and commentator on Middle East and national security issues.