TEHRAN – Relief and rescue services are being provided to 7,690 flood victims in 30 provinces across the country, Mehdi Valipour, head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) Relief and Rescue Organization, has said.

Heavy snow storms over the past five days affected 30 provinces, including Isfahan, Ilam, Bushehr, Tehran, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Khuzestan, Zanjan, Semnan, Fars, Qazvin, Qom, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, Golestan, Lorestan, Mazandaran, Markazi, Hormozgan and Hamedan.

Some 557 IRCS aid workers, including 159 teams, provided relief and rescue services to 7,690 people in flood-affected areas, he said.

During the past five days, 434 people were provided with emergency accommodation, 4 people were transferred to safe areas and 4 were transferred to medical centers.

Additionally, water was pumped out of 51 flooded houses, and food items were distributed among the flood victims, he added.

Earlier, flash flooding in 17 provinces which started on July 23 claimed 93 lives and left 6 people missing.

Twenty percent of areas across Iran are highly prone to flooding, Khosro Shahbazi, former head of the Forests, Range, and Watershed Management Organization, said in January 2020.

Hooshang Jazi, deputy head of the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization, said in December that 60 million people in Iran are residing in flood-prone cities and villages.

According to him, each flood brings the country a loss of 4.4 trillion rials (nearly $12.2 million).

According to UN surveys this year, the main natural disasters listed for Iran are drought, floods, and earthquakes. Subsidence is also a phenomenon that has emerged as one of the consequences of drought along with the aforementioned three challenges.

The main causes of flood in the country include rainfall fluctuations, climate change, uncontrolled water withdrawal from the aquifers, and improper infrastructure.

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