The Supreme National Security Council has banned the media from discussing water issues

A member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly has reported that the "Supreme Water Council" and the "Supreme National Security Council" have ordered that "issues related to water should not be publicized." According to the IRNA news agency, Ardeshir Nourian, a representative from Shahr-e Kord, made this announcement on Saturday, March 4, in protest against the actions of officials in Isfahan province (adjacent to Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province). He stated that the Isfahan officials are ignoring the resolutions of the Supreme Water Council and the Supreme National Security Council regarding "avoiding the media coverage of water issues, installing smart water extraction meters, filling illegal wells, and refraining from planting water-intensive crops in the Zayandeh Rud basin." This appears to be the first time an official from the Islamic Republic has acknowledged the existence of resolutions aimed at silence regarding the water crisis in the country. Ardeshir Nourian accused the executive and judicial officials in Isfahan of suspending some water-related projects in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari despite "orders from two presidents in different administrations." Isfahan officials have not yet responded to Nourian's statements, but in recent years, several neighboring provinces in Iran have repeatedly clashed over water and water resources. Additionally, water and environmental experts, as well as various officials of the Islamic Republic, have repeatedly warned about the worsening water scarcity crisis in Iran. Rahim Midani, the Deputy Minister of Water at the Ministry of Energy, stated last July without providing details that "the water situation has become so sensitive that it has been raised in the Supreme National Security Council." Shortly before him, Aladdin Boroujerdi, the then-chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Parliament, announced that a "Water Security Committee" had been formed in this commission. Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, the Minister of Interior, announced in August this year that in the first five months of this year, there have been "at least 20 protests and clashes related to water issues" in Iran. Water scarcity and water transfer projects in some provinces of Iran have repeatedly led to protests and subsequent clashes between the people and law enforcement in recent years. For instance, last March and in the early weeks of this year, farmers in the Varzaneh region in eastern Isfahan protested multiple times against water scarcity and the lack of allocated water rights. The scope of these protests even reached the Friday prayers in Isfahan, where on February 14 of last year, a number of farmers turned their backs to the Imam's podium during Friday prayers and chanted: "Back to the enemy – forward to the homeland." Following that, protests regarding water scarcity were held in Borazjan, the center of Dashtestan County in Bushehr province, in the Kazeroon region of Fars province, in Yasuj in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, and in the city of Saman in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province. Some officials from the previous government of the Islamic Republic, including former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, attributed drought in Iran to "suspicious enemy schemes." Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also stated this week that the decrease in rainfall in the country is "suspicious" and said: "Officials must examine the issues carefully and know that enemies are acting against us in various fields." This military official announced that "for a year now" the IRGC has entered the water sector "at the invitation of the Ministry of Energy" and said that they have realized that events have occurred in the water sector in recent years.