TEHRAN: Flooding within southern Iran has killed at least twenty one people and still left others missing following heavy rainfall in the largely arid nation, state media documented on Saturday (Jul 23).
“Twenty-one people were killed and two are still missing, ” in the floods that impacted several towns in and around Estahban county within the southern province associated with Fars, Hossein Darvishi, provincial head from the Red Crescent Community, was quoted because saying by state TV.
Videos posted on local media and social networking showed cars caught in the rising waters of the Roodball water and carried away whilst parents tried to save their children from the vehicles.
The chief excutive of Estahban, Yousef Kargar, said “around 5pm yesterday, weighty rains… in the central parts of Estahban Region led to flooding, inch according to state information agency IRNA.
Estahban is 174km east of the provincial capital Shiraz.
The tragedy happened on a summer weekend in Iran, whenever families tend to go to cooler areas for example riversides, lakesides and valleys.
“A number of local people plus sightseers (from some other areas) who choose to go to the riverside and were present in the river bed had been caught in the flood due to the rise in the water level, ” Kargar added.
Iran has endured recurring droughts over the past 10 years, but also regular floods, a phenomenon worsened when torrential rain falls on sun-baked earth.
Photos released by Iran’s Red Crescent Community showed rescuers strolling on cracked dried out soil while others worked well among reeds.
In 2019, large inundations in the nation’s south left at least 76 people lifeless and caused harm estimated at a lot more than US$2 billion.
In January two people were initially documented killed in display flooding in Fars when heavy rains hit the area, however the toll rose to at least eight presently there and elsewhere within Iran’s south.
Scientists say environment change amplifies intense weather, including droughts as well as the potential for the particular increased intensity of rainfall storms.
DRYING UP
Like other nearby nations, Iran has suffered chronic dry spells and heat waves for years, and these are expected to worsen.
Within the last few months, demonstrations have got occurred against the drying up of streams, particularly in central and southwestern Iran.
Last November, tens of thousands of people gathered in the parched riverbed of the country’s Zayandeh Rood river, which runs through the central city of Isfahan, in order to complain about the drought and blame officials for diverting drinking water.
Security factors fired tear fuel when the protest converted violent and said they arrested 67 people.
A week ago, official media mentioned Iranian police got arrested several potential foods for disturbing protection after they protested the particular drying up of the lake once thought to be the Middle East’s biggest.
Lake Urmia, in the mountains of northwest Iran, began shrinking in 1995 due to a combination of extented drought, and the removal of water pertaining to farming and dams, according to the UN Atmosphere Programme.
In neighbouring Iraq keep away from, 12 people died in flash floods that swept with the north of that nation, despite severe drought.