Iran: River diversion dries up Ahwazi Arab land
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In 2011, the World Health
Organization declared that Ahwaz City, the capital of the Khuzestan
governorate, was the most polluted city in the world, with high asthma levels
among children and teenagers due to industrial waste and emissions. Industrial
pollution has damaged the natural environment, and marshland biodiversity is so
seriously threatened that migratory birds have left the area. The Bandar Iman
petrochemical complex is a major pollutant, and has created environmental
devastation and low fish stocks, directly impacting the livelihoods of the
Ahwazis.
Despite or more likely
because of their region’s strategic importance – most of Iran’s oil wells are
there – many Ahwazi Arabs have been forced to migrate. The Iranian government
has pursued a policy of encouraging ethnic Persians to move in from other
provinces. The confiscation of Ahwazi land has been so widespread that it has
amounted to a government policy of dispossession.
The creation of the Arvan
Free Zone in 2005 involved the mass expulsion of Ahwazis and the destruction of
their villages. Iranian authorities have also followed a policy of ethnic
segregation in Khuzestan, by constructing walls that separate Ahwazis from
non-Arab districts and neighbourhoods. In urban areas, many Ahwazis live in
shanty towns which lack plumbing, sewerage and safe drinking water.
In recent years, the
Iranian government’s decision to divert the Karoun River in Khuzestan to other
drier regions has had further serious implications on the livelihood of
Ahwazis. In May 2011, the director of the Ahwaz Human Rights Organization
claimed that the diversion of waters from the Karoon and Karkhe rivers from
Arab lands to ethnically Persian provinces of Isfahan, Yazd and Kerman
represented a further erosion of Ahwazi farmers’ economic security. The river
is essential for agriculture and fishing, and is the largest source of income
for them. The disruption of water sources will lead to a lack of safe drinking
water, diseased fish and a decline in fish stock. River diversion erodes
farmer’s economic security.
The United Nations
Environmental Programme (UNEP) has repeatedly warned the Iranian government of
the disastrous environmental impact of diverting the Karoun River, but the
Iranian government has rejected concerns. The governors of Khuzestan, Chahar
Mahaal va Bakhtiari and Lorestan provinces have also reportedly expressed their
opposition to the diversion project. The project was due to start in 2011, but
as a result of the protests the project was postponed.
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