Based on figures published by official sources, every year 2700 persons die of pollution in Tehran meaning 52 a week.
The air pollution in Tehran has become a danger for the lives of millions of residents in this city, especially children, elders and sick people.
The air pollution crisis has spread to other cities as well, including ShahrehRay, Tabriz, Urumiyah, Zahedan and Kerman causing severe respiratory problems for people in these areas.
The extent of air pollution was such that many educational centers, state departments and institutions had to close down on December 24 and 25.
Moreover, in cities of Isfahan, ShahinShahr, Najafabad, Mobarakeh, Lanjan, Barkhar and Falawarjan kindergartens, elementary schools, and schools till the eighth grade have closed down since Sunday, December 29, due to increase in air pollution.
Eastern Azerbaijan central environment department reported that the average of air pollutant particles in city of Tabriz is 83 microns; three times the permissible level. General Director for environmental protection in Western Azerbaijan Province declared that the air pollutants for the city have increased to twice the admissible level.
In Karaj air quality has deteriorated catastrophically and will continue to be so in the following days.
Thousands of residents of southern province of Khuzestan sought hospital treatment due to worsening air pollution in late November 2013.
The Khuzestan capital Ahwaz, with a population of five million, was recently named as the world’s most polluted city by the World Health Organization.
The list of the most polluted cities in the world published by the business news website Quartz includes names of four cities in Iran”: Ahwaz, Kermanshah, Sanandaj, and Yasouj.
Residents in the city of Arak (central Iran) took to the streets in August along with their children protesting air pollution.
Angry residents of city of Zanjan also staged large demonstrations in the city protesting against pollution that is widely believed to be the cause high number cancer in the city.
Air pollution hit such high levels in June in Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces of Iran that residents were urged to stay indoors to protect their health.
Uncontrolled building of workshops and industrial factories in metropolitan areas by elements affiliated with the government with the aim of maximizing profits, lack of allocated funds for protection of the environment, inadequate attention toward forests, parks and green areas, plundering and destroying forests by bands affiliated with the government, drying up or reduction of water level for streams, rivers and lakes due to absence of least preservation considerations and divergence of their intake waters for industrial use, especially military industries as controlled by the regime, are among factors that have aggravated air pollution in Tehran and other cities and caused catastrophic destruction of the environment throughout the country.
Among these factors, measures undertaken by the Revolutionary Guards and other governmental organs that destroy forests and green areas for suppressive purposes or building military bases are among the most important elements leading to destruction of the environment.
In this regard, vast forests and meadows, especially in Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Kohkilouyeh, Boyerahmad and Lorestanhave been destroyed due to “security” considerations. In Lorestan Province, 35000 hectares of chestnut forests have been destroyed.
In Tehran, 10% to 12% of the most premium areas (around 72 square kilometers) have been allocated to bases for IRGC and other suppressive forces. The Ghadeer base in Qaen (in Khorassan province) built on a land of 600 hectares, Imam Khomeini’s base built on a land of 145 hectares in Khoy in 2008 by IRGC ground force, the new base for Khorassan’s77 Division built on a land of 1000 hectares in Mashhad, allocating a 1300 hectare land in Takhteh Ardakan in Bojnourd for an army base, as well as allocating vast lands in Ali Abad area for the firing field for the army are but a minute section of military installations built at the price of destroying country’s green areas and natural forests.
Moreover, a building complex constructed specifically for the IRGC in Gorgan’s Naharkhoran forests by orders from Khamenei’ himself on the pretext of building a museum for the unpatriotic Iran-Iraq war has this immense environmental asset of the country on the verge of complete devastation. The Naharkhoran Park has precious and rare trees with some several hundred years old. Its beauty and natural features are unmatched worldwide.
Pollution of air and environment, like poverty, corruption, unemployment, addiction, etc. have their root cause in the sinister rule of the mullahs and the only remedy will come with the fall of this medieval regime and the establishment of democracy in Iran.