Floods across Iranian southern provinces have so far claimed the lives of 11 people and created another humanitarian crisis amid the coronavirus outbreak in Iran.
Among the victims are a 32-year old woman and a five-year-old girl in the city of Bandar Abbas, southern Iran, and a 58-year old man in Larestan. There have been reports of injuries, two of which are in Bandar Kangan near Bushehr, southern Iran, and another in the city of Darab. This crisis could have been prevented since seasonal rains were reported on Sunday, March 22 in the provinces of Hormozgan, Fars, Bushehr, Sistan & Baluchistan, and Kerman. This sad incident comes days after the Persian New Year. Last Nowruz was also marked with deaths due to floods in many Iranian cities.
Reports from Kangan confirmed more 120 millimeters of rainfall, 100 millimeters pouring down on Sunday alone. The rainfall has resulted in power outages in various villages near these cities, along with dangerous mudslides between the two towns of Rahak and Dir in Bushehr Province. The governor in Kangan has confirmed that these rains have rendered damages to local infrastructure, homes, livestock and people’s vehicles.
In the city of Poledokhtar in Lorestan Province, many of the local roads are reportedly engulfed by floodwaters, and damages have been inflicted on people’s homes and stores. Roads leading to many villages, including those in the Paie district of Lorestan, are blocked by floods.
These floods are due to the regime’s mismanagement in destroying infrastructure, constructing unnecessary dams, dredging riverbeds and most importantly, negligence in helping the victims once the flood-ravaged.
Reports from Iran confirm the Iranian regime’s inaction. These reports further indicate that despite various flood crises throughout 2019, the Iranian regime has further declined to provide any funding to prepare these areas’ infrastructures for future rainfall. This is the same criminal approach as that regarding the coronavirus outbreak, which has, according to the reports published by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK), taking the lives of nearly 10,000 people.
In this regard, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), wrote on Twitter: “My sympathies to our compatriots stranded in nine Iranian provinces surrounded by Floods and overflowing of rivers. My condolences to families of the victims in Larestan and Bandar Abbas. As in the coronavirus outbreak in Iran no relief efforts could be expected from the mullahs’ depraved regime. The people of Iran become victims of preventable incidents.”
As in the #CoronaoutbreakIran no relief efforts could be expected from the mullahs’ depraved regime. The people of #Iran become victims of preventable incidents
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) March 22, 2020
