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Thousands protest in Isfahan, Iran Stories

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Demonstrators gather on the dry riverbed of the Zayandeh Rud River, demanding action to restore water to the river.

Tehran, Iran Thousands of people have staged a protest in Isfahan in central Iran demanding the revitalization of a dry riverbed.

State-of-the-art television and television broadcasts on Friday showed a sea of ​​farmers and other people standing on the dirt floor of the Zayandeh Rud River, near the famous Khaju Bridge in Isfahan province.

“Give Isfahan his breath, give back our Zayandeh Rud,” the protesters sang. Some want “equality and justice”.

The drying up of the river is thought to have a direct impact on the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers in the region, the state television said, in addition to environmental degradation.

The main river has been experiencing water shortages and droughts for many years, and farmers have been gradually increasing the lack of interest in the subject. But officials have not yet found a solution to the problem.

The old governments had promised to find solutions, and the country’s Supreme Council of Water had approved a nine-point plan for rehabilitating large-scale wetlands that it said was a sustainable solution eight years ago, but it was not fully implemented.

Farmers have been protesting at the site for the past week, but Friday’s protests attracted more people and attracted government attention.

President Ebrahim Raisi held a meeting with environmentalists, with his first deputy, Mohammad Mokhber, speaking directly to the protesters in a short telephone call with a government reporter.

Mokhber promised that the authorities would “closely follow” the issue and said he had instructed the ministers of agriculture and energy to resolve it. He added that there were several possible solutions to these problems but did not name them.

Drought has been rampant in Iran for many years, but has intensified in the last decade. Many Iranian governments are currently experiencing a drought.

The family is walking along the dry Zayandeh Rud River in Isfahan, 450 km (281 miles) south of Tehran. [File: Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters]



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