The former head of Iran’s Department of Environment warned about the water crisis in the country, saying that the mismanagement of water resources threatens Iran’s seven-thousand-year-old civilization. He referred to Mahab Ghods Company as the policymaker of the “water mafia” and said that Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters (controlled by the IRGC) and “SEPASAD” (an IRGC-linked engineering firm) have destroyed the private water sector in Iran.
Isa Kalantari, on Monday, August 25, in an interview with the state-run Didban Iran website, discussed issues such as the water crisis, dam construction, the water mafia, mismanagement of water resources, water waste in agriculture, mismanagement by the Energy Ministry, land subsidence, air pollution, and other water and environmental problems.
He said that the country’s water problems have been building over recent decades and were predictable: “All the problems we are facing today were mentioned 20 years ago, but everyone was chasing water extraction, water transfer, deep-water and shallow-water withdrawal, brokerage, mafia games, and so on.”
The former head of the Department of Environment, in response to a question about the existence of a water mafia in the country, said: “Our water policymakers, water consultants and contractors, along with their colleagues in the Ministry of Energy, are the ones who impose the policies. How can we dry up all our rivers and build dams? Yes, there is a dam-construction mafia, but this stems from the weakness of the water policymakers in the country.”
A multi-layered mafia that plays a role in policymaking, exploitation, and project implementation is the main factor behind Iran’s water and energy crisis.
In this context, the former agriculture minister described Mahab Ghods Company as the “policymaker of the water mafia and the hidden hand behind water shortages, dam construction, and water projects in the country,” adding: “This is a monopolistic company under whose supervision all dam constructions are carried out.”
He added: “Before this company was transferred to Astan Quds Razavi (a powerful religious-economic conglomerate) and later returned to the Energy Ministry, all the country’s water studies were given to Mahab Ghods. This company operated at 1,500% capacity, distributing studies among other companies, taking its cut, and becoming a monopoly.”
Warnings About Iran’s Drought Crisis Coinciding with World Water Day https://t.co/E4TYySb4fh pic.twitter.com/0jBlEOgTuh
— Iran Focus (@Iran_Focus) March 22, 2025
Khatam al-Anbiya and SEPASAD
In another part of the interview, when asked about the role of Khatam al-Anbiya and Sepasad in water transfer projects, Kalantari said: “They are contractors, and a contractor is basically like a gravedigger; they take the plan and budget from someone else and just execute the project. But the problem is that they have also become monopolies, and the private sector has almost disappeared.”
This former environmental official described policymaking contractors as the “main culprits of today’s water situation” and added: “Our decision-makers are not very knowledgeable and only repeat a few social and populist slogans like such-and-such a city needs water or such-and-such a city needs agricultural development.”
He added that in the water sector, the policymakers have mainly been water consultants and contractors who have prioritized their personal interests over national interests: “They present projects in this field to the Energy Ministry, and the minister then takes them to the government and parliament for approval and implementation.”
Kalantari stressed that the contracting mafia is certainly behind the water transfer projects from the Sea of Oman to central Iran, including Isfahan, Kerman, and Yazd, saying: “The same applies to deep-water projects, which have already been rejected worldwide.”
In May, U.S. President Donald Trump, during his trip to the Middle East, described Iran’s regime as a “corrupt regime,” “destructive for the region,” and “trapped in a water mafia.” He said that due to decades of mismanagement, Iran has sunk into darkness and that the water mafia has caused drought.
