Iran’s Ham-Mihan newspaper reported on August 27 that an “unprecedented event” has caused 60 percent of Iran’s territory to be affected by var ious intensities of dust and particulate matter.
Following the onslaught of dust and particulate matter in some areas of northern and northeastern Iran, which began on Friday, August 26, some regime’s officials stated that the source was the Turkmenistan Desert. However, some experts refute this and attribute the cause to the drying up of internal wetlands.
In recent days, domestic outlets and social media users have shared images of the dust storms impact in the eastern part of Mazandaran province, northern Iran, Gorgan, and northern regions of Khorasan province. Some residents have described this phenomenon as “unprecedented” in these areas, while others have likened it to the dust storms in Sistan and Baluchestan province.
The Director General of Meteorology in Golestan province in northern Iran announced the source of the dust storm as the Turkmenistan Desert, stating that the cities of Bandar Turkmen, Bandar Gaz, Gorgan, and some parts of the northern regions have been affected by this phenomenon.
Ali Mohammad Tahmasbi-Birgani, an advisor to the head of the Environmental Protection Organization and the secretary of the National Dust Storm Committee, also declared Turkmenistan as the origin of the current dust storms in an interview with Ham-Mihan on Monday. He added that simultaneously, another dust mass with Semnan province as its origin has formed in this province and the provinces of Qom and southern Tehran. Additionally, another dust mass from Iraq has affected parts of the southwest such as Dasht-e Azadegan, Shush, and some areas of Ilam province.
This situation is different from the widespread dust storms that affected Sistan and Baluchestan province and some parts of Khorasan in recent weeks.
Nevertheless, many environmental experts and activists attribute the main cause of dust and particulate matter phenomena in Iran to the drying up of lakes and internal wetlands, as well as neighboring countries. In recent years, this has become one of the serious environmental crises in Iran.
Mohammad Darvish, an environmental activist, stated, “Various factors contribute to the intensification of dust storms, including the alteration of natural river routes, which leads to the desiccation of riverbeds, often consisting of wetland environments and desert lakes, becoming sources of dust and soil particles.”
In addition to the drying of Lake Urmia and the warning of its transformation into a “large swamp” by mid-August of this year, environmental activist Mohammad Kohansal had previously warned that if the continued “overflow of urban sewage” and “sediments resulting from extensive deforestation in previous years” persist, Anzali Lagoon, one of the largest lagoons in the Middle East, will turn into a separate and shallow pond within the next five years.
Meanwhile, besides reports of critical conditions in Gavkhouni Wetland in Isfahan, central Iran, and Hoor al-Azim Wetland in southwestern Khuzestan, smaller wetlands are also suffering. The Director General of Environmental Protection in Kermanshah, located in western Iran, had stated on August 20 that Hashilan Wetland in this province will completely dry up in a few days.
Furthermore, the alarm bell of Lake Caspian shrinking and the exacerbation of this situation with a decrease in water inflows in the future has also been sounded.
The issue of drying lakes and wetlands in Iran in recent years has become one of the serious environmental crises in the country.
The officials and authorities of the regime frequently attribute the origin of dust pollution to external factors and neighboring countries in their response to the alarming alerts regarding soil erosion and the environmental consequences of lake and wetland desiccation.
However, environmental experts and activists believe that the existing crises in the country are the result of mismanagement.
Abbas Mohammadi, an environmental activist, says, “The environmental problems in our country are more serious than simply assigning the issues to external factors and deflecting responsibility.”
This expert considers the major cause of dust storms and particulate matter that affect all corners of the country as “poor governance” and further adds, “Both in domestic politics and foreign policy, we have engaged ourselves in matters and issues that are not primarily national and fundamentally beyond our capacity and willpower to solve.”
Experts believe that one of the main reasons for the drying up of Lake Urmia is the construction of 57 dams in the northwest of Iran by the IRGC. The construction of 82 dams in the catchment area of Anzali lagoon is the reason the water level in this lagoon has decreased by one to two meters.
Even though the IRGC has built the dams under the pretext of providing drinking water and agriculture for the people, these dams only provide about ten percent of the water consumed by agricultural lands. Consequently, 40% of the country’s drinking water is wasted every year, and in the agricultural sector, 30% of water is wasted every year. The total of these two wastages is more than 40 billion cubic meters of water annually. This rate of water wastage is about one third of the country’s water consumption.
This regime that has spent all the wealth of the country for its own survival, does not care about the improvement of the environmental situation. For this reason, we are witnessing the destruction of many wetlands, rivers, etc.
This is just one more reason why the people of Iran are fed up with their rulers, who have no respect for any form of life in their country. And while regime officials are fast busy playing the blame game, the people of Iran know full well that the root of the problems is the regime in its entirety.
