Flooding in southern Iran has killed at least 21 people and left others missing after heavy rains lashed the largely arid country, state media reported.
Key Points:
- Heavy rains swelled the Roudbal River near the city of Estahban, according to the city’s governor.
- Thirteen of the 21 bodies found have been identified
- Iran has suffered repeated droughts over the past decade, but also regular floods, with many blamed on climate change
“At around 5 pm yesterday, heavy rains in the towns of Ij and Roodbal in the central parts of Estehban County caused flooding,” Yousef Kargar, the province’s county governor, said on Saturday from Fars, quoted by the state news agency IRNA.
“As a result of the flood, 21 bodies have been found in the vicinity of Estehban, of which 13 have been identified,” he said, adding that there are still other missing people.
“A number of locals and tourists [from other areas] who had gone to the river bank and were present in the river bed were trapped by the flood due to the rising water level,” he added.
Video posted to local media and social media shows cars caught in the rising waters of the Roodball River and swept away.
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Iran has suffered repeated droughts over the past decade, but also regular floods.
In 2019, heavy flooding in the south of the country caused at least 76 deaths and caused damage estimated at more than US$2 billion ($2.8 billion).
In January, at least two people died in a flash flood in Fars when heavy rains hit the area, a local official said at the time.
Scientists say climate change amplifies extreme weather, including droughts, as well as the potential for increased intensity of rainstorms.
Rescuers help recover a body after a flood in the southern province of Fars. (AFP: Iranian Red Crescent)
Dry weather and heat waves
Like other nearby countries, Iran has suffered chronic droughts and heat waves for years, and these are expected to worsen.
In recent months there have been demonstrations against the drying up of rivers, especially in the center and south-west of Iran.
Last November, tens of thousands of people, including farmers, gathered on the dry bed of the country’s Zayandeh Rood River in the country’s central region to complain about the drought and blame officials for diverting water.
Security forces fired tear gas as the protest turned violent and said they arrested 67 people.
Last week, state media said Iranian police had arrested several people for disrupting security after protesting the drying up of a lake once considered the largest in the Middle East.
Lake Urmia, in the mountains of northwestern Iran, began shrinking in 1995 due to a combination of prolonged drought and water extraction for agriculture and dams, according to the UN Environment Programme.
In December, in neighboring Iraq, 12 people died as a result of flash floods that swept through the north of that country, despite severe drought.
AFP