Spring of freedom

It was a real tragedy for villagers and farmers in Dasht-e Azadegan County, Khouzistan Province (southwestern Iran),” said the director of the County’s Cooperative for Agriculture and Natural Resources, a state organization responsible for agricultural land management. “Tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land have been swallowed up and destroyed and all livestock is dying,” added Hossein Marmazi in an interview with the Semi-Official Press Agency, ILNA, on 6 April 2019. This director complained about the incompetence and laxity of the authorities, saying that they were content to give orders to evacuate the towns in the county, “even though it was not that simple! Tens of thousands of people live in each of these cities.” “These people don’t know where to go! They do not know what to do when they have no money with the prices that are devastating. Who will house them? If they don’t move it’s because they have nowhere to go.” Marmazi revealed that experts from his cooperati...

A director of Dasht-e Azadegan’s Cooperative for Agriculture and Natural Resources - a state organisation responsible for agricultural land management – has said that the Iranian authorities have shown nothing but incompetence and laxity during the floods. Hossein Marmazi said that, as a result of this mismanagement, tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land was destroyed in Khouzistan Province and evacuated people had nowhere to go. He explained that for seven months experts from his cooperative had warned the authorities about severe floods in early spring. He  said : “We insisted that the marshes and moats must be dredged and that in the event of a flood, towns, and villages will be swallowed up under water. Nobody listened to us.” Protests Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Iranian Resistance said: “Two weeks have passed since the floods began and the situation in Iran remains highly critical. The mullahs’ regime’s inaction in the fa...