Rouhani on Earthquake Damage: Corruption in Construction Exists

The President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, considered the survival of self-built homes by the people in Sarpol-e Zahab and the collapse of government-built structures in the area as a sign of "corruption." Tasnim News Agency reported on Wednesday (November 15) that Rouhani made this statement during a cabinet meeting, referring to the earthquake that occurred in western Iran, particularly in Kermanshah province. Rouhani described the prevention and confrontation of earthquake-related dangers as a "common duty" and added that approximately 30,000 urban and rural homes in the earthquake-affected areas of Kermanshah need to be rebuilt and repaired. He recently visited the earthquake-stricken areas in western Iran and stated: "The fact that the houses built by the people in Sarpol-e Zahab remained intact while a government building collapsed indicates the occurrence of corruption in this regard." The Iranian president further noted that "it is clear that there has been corruption in the construction contracting sector." Rouhani also called for the temporary and permanent resettlement of the earthquake victims to be entrusted to the Housing Foundation, emphasizing that there should be no "parallel work" in this regard. In Kermanshah, he told reporters: "When we went to Sarpol-e Zahab, we saw how the houses of the people next to the Mehr housing were not even broken, while the Mehr housing was destroyed." Rouhani added: "Of course, some say the reason is that those houses were on a fault line, while a fault is not a point but a path, and if those houses related to Mehr housing were on the fault line, the neighboring houses were also on the same fault line." His remarks refer to the earthquake on November 21 in western Iran, which left over 400 dead and nearly 1,000 injured. The Law newspaper on Wednesday published a report titled "Aftershocks of Management," severely criticizing the 12th government and Rouhani himself, accusing him of "not separating from his security guard" and having a "top-down view" of the people. The newspaper wrote that "Rouhani, who chose the site of the destroyed Mehr housing to mock Ahmadinejad and deliver a speech, made promises amidst a multitude of security and military forces, just like his election rallies, and left." Following the recent earthquake and the publication of images of the Mehr housing in Sarpol-e Zahab on social media, there has been significant criticism regarding the resilience of these buildings. The mass housing and low-cost Mehr housing project began during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency and was implemented in various parts of Iran. Although the public relations office of the Roads and Urban Development Ministry in Kermanshah announced that there is still "no accurate statistics on the casualties of Mehr housing in the earthquake-affected areas, especially Sarpol-e Zahab," unconfirmed reports have emerged indicating that most victims lived in these houses. In this context, Mohammad Reza Rezaei, the head of the Parliament's Civil Commission, said on Wednesday that the level of destruction of Mehr housing units in the earthquake-affected areas is "regrettable." He told ILNA, the Iranian Labor News Agency, that "the negligent and guilty managers, regardless of which period they made decisions in the field of Mehr housing, must be held accountable and must certainly explain in Parliament." A day before him, Hassan Qorbankhani, the head of the Iranian Engineering Organization, announced that "the Engineering Organization had no supervision over the construction of Mehr housing units, and no supervising engineer was introduced by this organization for the Mehr housing units." Before him, Eshaq Jahangiri, Rouhani's first vice president, also stated without providing details that most of the houses destroyed in the recent earthquake in the western country belonged to Mehr housing buildings. Meanwhile, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, a member of Parliament, announced the issuance of an arrest warrant for the contractor of the newly built hospital destroyed in the earthquake in Islamabad-e Gharb. Falahatpisheh told ILNA that "the destroyed hospital in Islamabad-e Gharb was recently built and inaugurated, and we witnessed that this hospital was destroyed following the earthquake, while the Imam Khomeini hospital, despite being several decades old, did not suffer serious damage." According to him, "following this issue, the public prosecutor has issued an arrest warrant for the contractor of this hospital." However, some supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on social media have defended the Mehr housing project, stating that if these houses had not been built in the earthquake-affected areas, the number of casualties would have been higher. In this context, "the lack of facilities and poor management is the main problem of the earthquake victims." The earthquake victims in Kermanshah spent another night outdoors; the number of injured reached 9,388. Criticism from some members of Parliament regarding the "weak relief efforts" for the earthquake victims. The U.S. Treasury Department announced ways to send aid to the earthquake victims in Kermanshah. "Dozens" of victims of the Kermanshah earthquake were "buried without permission." The Iranian Engineering Organization has "no supervision" over the Mehr housing project.