A senior lawmaker has urged relevant bodies to give Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Province’s water woes the same level of attention given to other province’s struggle with water shortage, such as Isfahan, Yazd and Kerman.
Ardeshir Nouriyan, a newly-elected representative from Shahr-e Kord, the province’s capital, expressed dismay over the gross mismanagement of water projects and the Energy Ministry’s “discriminatory measures” that have only exacerbated the province’s water problems, ILNA reported.
“Mismanagement has made the water crisis in the province a matter of security and a national concern,” he said, stressing that the Energy Ministry’s attitude toward Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari’s water problems is “unfair and illogical”.
“It is our responsibility to stand up for the rights of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari residents, which the ministry seems to be ignoring,” he said.
He stressed that he has no intention of fueling the problem and is only seeking to uphold the rights of the province’s people.
Even before entering the parliament, Nouriyan says he had called on the Energy Ministry to act more tactfully in this regard and prevent discriminatory measures by its employees.
Pointing to the fact that water in many villages of the province is supplied by tankers, Nouriyan said, “It is not logical to leave these hard-pressed people on the grounds that pistachio farms in Rafsanjan (in Kerman) or a factory in Isfahan need water.”
Referring to the Beheshtabad scheme that aims to transfer water from Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari to Isfahan, the MP said work on the project began despite the staunch opposition of environmental officials and experts about the impact of the plan on the province’s groundwater resources and aquifers.
“The lobbies were so powerful that even thorough studies by experts were not able to stop the project,” he said.
Nouriyan noted that it is more effective and cost-efficient to tackle water problems early before they spiral out of control and turn into serious problems.
