Residents of Three Villages in Northern Iran Protest Water Transfer Plan

Residents of three villages in Mazandaran province protested against the transfer of water from a spring that supplies water for their agricultural lands. The local website 'Mian-Khabar' reported on Wednesday, September 24, that protesters gathered in front of the 'Darabkala' village council holding placards. Slogans included 'Save the Maziyar Spring', 'Leave the Maziyar Spring Alone', and 'Water and soil are like our honor, we will defend them.' The protesters, from the villages of 'Darabkala', 'Osa', and 'Marsam', object to the issuance of a permit for transferring water from the 'Maziyar' spring to the 'Mahan' company. According to the local website, the 'Mahan' company is constructing a recreational and tourism complex in the village of 'Lalim', for which it has received permission to supply water from the 'Maziyar' spring located in the 'Osa' forest. One villager protested the permit issuance by stating, 'The water rights for this spring are not registered to anyone,' but residents of 'Osa' pay for the use of this spring's water. The local website 'Balagh-Mazandaran' also reported that the water transfer plan is a 'red line' for the local people, which the 'Mahan' company has put on its agenda. According to this website, the company's officials 'have disregarded local requests and have begun to implement a pipeline project and construct a concrete dam at the spring's mouth.' Mazandaran province, like many other provinces in Iran, faces water shortages, and officials have repeatedly warned about the worsening water scarcity in the region in recent years. According to the Mazandaran Urban Water and Wastewater Company, the average water consumption index in the country is 150 liters per person under normal conditions, while each Mazandarani citizen consumes between 197 to 200 liters of water daily. Drinking water for citizens under the coverage of the Mazandaran Urban Water and Wastewater Company is supplied through 150 wells and 19 springs and rivers. Currently, 525 springs and 30 wells provide drinking water for Mazandaran's villages, with illegal water withdrawals from underground aquifers and wells leading to water shortages in these villages. Mazandaran has 147 branches of rivers, 1,798 agricultural canals, 48 qanats, 7,394 springs, and 763 water reservoirs. There are over 70,000 legal deep and semi-deep wells in Mazandaran, which annually extract about 1.2 billion cubic meters of water.