Water protests in the Khuzestan province
For the past week, there have been strong protests over water shortage in the cities of the south-western Iranian province of Khuzestan as summer temperatures have peaked and the people are in dire need of water supply. The protests have also taken a political hue as the minority population in the region gives vent to the general discrimination and neglect of the people and the province.
Khuzestan is an oil-rich province and earns for Iran large foreign exchange. But the complaint is that the people remain poor in this oil-rich province. It is generally acknowledged that there has been a general neglect of the minority population of the province in a country administered at the top by the clergy. However, it should be appreciated that the
Iranian government readily acknowledged that the protests were just, and that there is enough reason for people to protest.
Iran’s Supreme leader Ali Khamenei said the people of Khuzestan cannot be blamed for the protests over water shortages. Outgoing president Hasan Rouhani said that people have every right to protest within the legal framework but warned of mischievous elements who could take advantage of the unrest. According to reports, Admiral Ali Shamkhani, secretary general of the Supreme National Security Council, said that security forces have been ordered to release all the people who have been detained but who have not commited a criminal act. There were anti-government protests in 2019 too.
The reason for water shortage in Khuzestan is a complex story of handling, according to an environmental expert who served as a deputy environmental minister but who was pushed out by a group opposing him ideologically. Kaveh Madani was teaching at Imperial College in London when he was inducted into the environmental ministry. According to him, the water crisis arose because ater the 1979 Iranian revolution, the government had built hydroelectric dams to supply electricity to the country. The dams were financed by the oil revenue. But in the fragile ecosystem of Khuzestan, the large number of hydroelectric dams had sucked out the water from the rivers and from the ground. The water was also to expand the agricultural sector. The excess water usage was unsustainable. This year has been the driest in 50 years, and the shortage has just become more acute.
There are no easy solutions to restore the water levels in the region except the long-term one of allowing the water resources to be allowed to revive so that flow in the rivers and levels of groundwater are restored through the annual monsoon. That would mean finding alternate ways of generating electricity, and of holding back on the agricultural operations. This would require both political will and strategic water planning. This shows that unplanned and indiscriminate economic development brings with it problems that damage the environment, and in turn make access to drinking water for people difficult.
It is usually the case that as the crisis recedes and a good monsoon next year makes those in power to neglect the basic issues until there is another dry year triggering the water crisis. It is necessary for the people to sustain a protest demanding the restoration of the water ecosystem of Khuzestan. It is in the good monsoon years that water resources should be allowed to build reserves. This cannot happen without a plan to implement the programmes to save water. And this cannot be achieved without the active participation of the people of the province. This cannot be managed by a distant central government. It is for this reason that the protesters are demanding that the government must hear their voices, to what they are saying.