Environment

RFL/RE – A U.S.-based news outlet that covers news in Iran says at least 214 people, including 13 minors, were arrested last week in a police crackdown on demonstrators protesting crippling water shortages in the central city of Isfahan.Thirty people were wounded in the eyes by pellets fired by police officers on November 26, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).Severe drought …

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) – More protesters were transferred to Isfahan Central Prison this afternoon after being arrested at the farmers’ peaceful protests against the mismanagement of the water crisis. At least 30 protesters have sustained injuries to their eyes and are being at the Alzahra and Amin Hospitals. Homes of suspected protesters are being raided and yet more detained. …

Iranwire – Protests over the water crisis in Isfahan intensified on Friday, with security forces firing tear gas and what appeared to be birdshot at crowds gathered on the dried-up Zayanderud riverbed. Farmers’ tents were set on fire the day before and several people have been arrested while unrest also spread to Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Khuzestan and Yazd provinces. The drought in Isfahan has …

Al-Monitor – Protesters who have been camped out across the drained basin of River Zayandeh Rood in the central Iranian city of Esfahan woke up to a pre-dawn raid by riot police Nov. 25. Videos on social media were replete with chaotic scenes as tents were set on fire, with police teargassing the protesters to put an end to their two-week sit-in. …

RFL/RE – Tents set up last week by Iranian farmers in a dry river bed in Isfahan, Iran’s third-largest city, to protest against water cuts have been set on fire by riot police, and shots could be heard in the area. The site was being “cleaned up” by the city’s municipality after the tents were set on fire overnight by …

RFL/RE – A trickle of water in southwestern Iran has turned into a torrent of protests against the clerical establishment in Tehran.Just months after the authorities resorted to deadly force and empty promises to tamp down mass protests, locals in the region have joined farmers to demand government action to replenish water supplies drained by decades of mismanagement.Videos show tens …

Al-Monitor – Just days after thousands of Iranians took to the streets in Isfahan to protest water policies and the government’s inability to address the water shortages, Iranians in an adjacent province took the streets over the same cause. For back-to-back days, hundreds of residents of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province gathered in the provincial capital Khahrekord to protest water scarcity. …

Al-Monitor – Thousands of Iranians gathered in the central city of Isfahan on Friday to demand the government address the drying up of the region’s most important river, state TV reported. In videos posted to social media, demonstrators are seen making their way through a dry riverbed on their way to the centuries-old Khaju Bridge over the Zayandeh Rood River. …

VOA – Two strong earthquakes struck southern Iran near the port of Bandar Abbas on Sunday, prompting residents to flee their homes and killing at least one person, state TV reported. The quakes measured 6.3 and 6.4 magnitude, jolting the province of Hormozgan, state TV said, and the tremors were felt across the gulf in Dubai. “One person died after …

Iranwire – Tens of thousands of rural villages across Iran don’t have adequate drinking water, the Minister of Energy has revealed. Announcing the creation of a “Water Jihad Council” on November 2, Ali Akbar Mehrabian said as many as 25,000 villages were suffering a water crisis. “We have 650 large sewage and water supply projects in the country that are under-funded,” he explained. Water shortages have prompted …