Floods Force Evacuation of Hospital in Southwest Iran

Iranian authorities on Monday evacuated patients from a hospital threatened by floodwaters in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, the semi-official news agency ISNA reported.

Iran has been hit by several weeks of unprecedented flooding across most of the usually arid country that has killed 70 people, according to the emergency services.

On Monday, authorities were battling to prevent floods reaching Ahvaz, which is the capital of Khuzestan province and home to about 1.3 million people.

The advancing waters sparked fears that a hospital on the city's northern outskirts would be submerged after the nearby Karkheh river burst its banks.

“Salamat hospital has been evacuated and all patients transferred to Golestan hospital on the orders of the crisis management authorities due to the risk of the hospital being flooded," the head of Golestan hospital, Meysam Moazi, told ISNA.

The huge floods have forced authorities to release water from one of the largest dams in the area, which has left some of the cities downstream under threat.

A "significant amount" of floodwater from Karkheh started moving toward Ahvaz on Sunday, according to city mayor Mansour Katanbaf.

"We've been trying to manage the water ... most of it has been diverted toward other channels and what's left is being handled," Katanbaf told ISNA.

Authorities ordered the evacuation of six new cities along the Karkheh river on Saturday as the situation neared "critical" status.

According to ISNA, a total of 210 villages along the river have been evacuated, 61 of which are now flooded.

Flooding swamped northeast Iran in mid March before spreading to the west and southwest of the country later in the month.

Heavy rains brought more floods to the west and southwest at the start of April.

The flooding has caused damage worth IRR 150 trillion—more than USD 1 billion at the free market rate, according to an official estimate given by lawmaker Mehrdad Lahooti.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran Will Need to Tap Wealth Fund for Flood Damage

Flood damage in western Iran exceeds the government’s budget for disaster relief and officials will have to tap the country’s sovereign wealth fund to cover reconstruction costs, the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported. 

Around IRR 9.5 trillion—equivalent to USD 230 million at Iran’s official exchange rate—of damage has been caused to agricultural fields in the southwestern province of Khuzestan alone, Keykhosro Changlavaee, head of the Agricultural Administration of Khustanestan said, according to ISNA. 

The floods that started last month have killed 70 people, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, and devastated swathes of Western Iran. The waters have destroyed towns and villages, mostly in the provinces of Lorestan and Khuzestan, prompting mass evacuations throughout the area.

“The government cannot finance the heavy cost of the damage alone,” Gholamreza Tajgerdoun, head of the parliamentary commission for budget affairs was cited as saying in the ISNA report. “There needs to be help from elsewhere. The overall cost of the damage hasn’t yet been finalized, but what’s clear is that the damage is greater than the annual budget has allowed for.”

Tajgerdoun said the government will probably have to dip into the National Development Fund, Iran’s sovereign wealth fund, which consists largely of income from oil exports. Iran’s oil sales have declined steeply in the past six months following the U.S. government’s decision to reimpose sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s economy and energy industry after abrogating the 2015 nuclear deal.

Earlier on Saturday, officials said some 36 villages in and around the city of Sushtar in Khuzestan were being evacuated before an expected increase in rainfall that’s anticipated to cause rivers to overflow further in the coming days. 

One of the major dams serving Khuzestan, which borders Iraq and the site of several major oil fields, is at risk of overspilling and filled beyond normal capacity, Hamidreza Lashgari, deputy head of Khuzestan’s Water and Electricity Administration, told ISNA. Lashgari warned that authorities may not be able to control the dam if water levels continue to climb.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran Orders New Evacuations Amid Fresh Flood Fears

Iranian authorities ordered the evacuation of six cities along the Karkheh river in southwestern Khuzestan province on Saturday after more rain sparked fears of new flooding, state news agency IRNA said.

Floods in Iran since March have killed 70 people the head of the emergency services said on Friday according to the official IRNA News Agency.  

Six cities alongside Karkheh river in southwestern Iran "must be evacuated as soon as possible," Khuzestan governor Gholamreza Shariati told IRNA.

The oil-rich province of Khuzestan has an extensive range of dams, which have swelled upstream due to fresh downpours.

The floodwater's intensity has forced authorities to open emergency discharges at Karkheh dam, one of the largest in the area, thus sparking fears of fresh flooding.

The situation appears to be "critical", he said.  "We advise all women and children to be evacuated to shelters and youngsters to remain and help," he added.

Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli warned that up to 400,000 people in Khuzestan could be exposed to the floods, IRNA reported.

Iran, a usually arid country, has been hit by unprecedented flooding across most of the country since mid-March with 70 people killed, according to the country's emergency services.

Heavy rain was forecast for Saturday in Khuzestan.

The country's northeast was swamped on March 19 before the west and southwest of the country were inundated on March 25, killing a total of 45people.

On April 1 the west and southwest were again swamped by floods when heavy rains returned to the area.

The government said the flooding had damaged nearly 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) of roads, or 36 percent of the country's entire network.

The worst hit in the latest deluge was Lorestan Province where in some cities whole neighborhoods were washed away and many villages are still cut off. 

Fourteen deaths have been reported from Lorestan so far.

Photo Credit: IRNA