Financial Aid for Flood-Hit Homes

Financial aid to the tune of $1250-$1500 (50-60 million rials) will be given to people whose homes were damaged in the floods following heavy rainfall January 19-24 in Sistan-Baluchestan Province, said Mohammad Shariatmadari, vice president for executive affairs, on the sidelines of a meeting Sunday in Konarak County. 

“During our visit to the flood-stricken counties in the province, we saw that residential buildings had sustained the most damage in the downpour,” IRNA quoted him as saying.  

“Some 720 residential units were destroyed, and 1,040 were damaged (60%) and are in need of reconstruction and renovation,” he said.  Earlier, the government had announced $5000 (200 million rials) as loans at 4% interest rate to help owners renovate their damaged homes. 

Shariatmadari said prior to the heavy rainfall, the total amount of water stored in the provincial dams was 17 million cubic meters which increased to 85 million cubic meters after the heavy precipitation. The province had faced severe drought and a long dry spell during the last decade.  

He also pointed to different projects currently under construction including the Chabahar-Zahedan railway project to increase capacity of the Chabahar Port, and the piped-irrigation system to provide water to 46,000 hectares of agricultural lands. Under a project, half of Iran’s water share from Helmand River will be transferred to farmlands through a piped modern irrigation system. 

The southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan Province has a population of more than 2.5 million people as per the last census in 2011. Rural people who live in 6,200 villages constitute 51% of the total population. 

The past two weeks saw heavy precipitation in 20 provinces, with Sistan-Baluchestan the worst affected.

“Avalanches also killed four people in Boyuran-e Olya village in Sardasht County, West Azarbaijan Province,” on Saturday at 8.40 pm, said Fayegh Abdollahzadeh, head of the county’s Iranian Red Crescent Society.  Around 16 people were caught in the avalanches of whom four lost their lives and the others received treatment for injuries.