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Iran Estimates Agricultural Losses from Floods at $180 Million

by Michael Lipin

   An Iranian official says deadly floods that hit some of Iran's
   provinces this week have caused heavy financial losses to the Islamic
   Republic's agriculture sector.

   A Friday report by [1]Tehran-based state-approved newspaper Hamshahri
   quoted the head of the agriculture ministry's crisis management
   department, Seyyed Mohammad Mousavi, as estimating flood losses at 24
   trillion rials, or $180 million, based on the unofficial exchange rate
   of 135,000 rials to the dollar quoted by [2]bonbast.com Friday.

   The Iranian official said the losses were caused primarily in nine
   Iranian provinces, including Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Fars, Golestan,
   Kermanshah, North Khorasan, Khuzestan, Mazandaran, Semnan, and Sistan
   and Baluchestan.

   Hamshahri cited Mousavi as saying 50 percent of the agricultural losses
   were related to farms, 23 percent to horticulture, 17 percent to water
   infrastructure and delivery networks, and 10 percent to livestock and
   fish.

   Death toll at 44

   In a Thursday report, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency said
   floods had killed at least 44 people in 10 provinces since Monday.

   In an interview with the Friday edition of [3]VOA Persian's News at
   Nine program, Washington-based climate and international security
   commentator Caitlin Werrell said Iran's flooding damage was caused by a
   combination of two factors.

   "One is the intensity of the weather event -- we saw a huge amount of
   precipitation happen in a short period of time," said Werrell, chief
   executive of The Council on Strategic Risks, a security policy
   institute.

   "That was combined with the conditions on the ground: infrastructure
   and also '¦ a drought that precedes a flood (and) means that the soil
   is not as absorbent as it could have been," she added.

   Updated infrastructure needed

   Iranian officials acknowledged that outdated agricultural and
   irrigation systems and poor water management policies in the past
   decades contributed to nationwide water shortages last year. Below
   average precipitation exacerbated the situation.

   Werrell also said there are steps that countries such as Iran can take
   to mitigate future flooding disasters, which she predicted will become
   more frequent as the climate changes.

   "Short-term weather forecasting has gotten better, but you also can
   also put in place things like early warning systems for people who
   cannot get out of the way, things that I would encourage everybody, not
   just in Iran, but across the world to be doing," she said.

   This article originated in [4]VOA's Persian Service.

   Michael covers international news for VOA on the web, radio and TV,
   specializing in the Middle East and East Asia Pacific. Follow him on
   Twitter [5]@Michael_Lipin

References

   1. http://bit.ly/2WAVh9P
   2. http://bonbast.com/
   3. https://ir.voanews.com/a/4853999.html
   4. https://ir.voanews.com/
   5. https://twitter.com/Michael_Lipin