TEHRAN – Aid to flood victims is still going on in 162 cities across the country, Mehdi Valipour, head of the IRCS Relief and Rescue Organization, has said.

Since July 23, flash flooding has claimed 78 lives and left 15 people missing, he lamented.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society aid workers, including 1,393 teams, provided relief and rescue services to 50,000 people in flood-affected areas, he said.

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.

Since July 23, flash flooding has claimed 78 lives and left 15 people missing.

According to statistics, the average rainfall in the country in the last 50 years has been 270 mm, which has decreased by 230 mm, in other words, over the past 5 decades, the average rainfall has dropped by 40 mm.

According to the World Meteorological Organization's multiannual forecast, in the next five years, Iran’s average rainfall will decline by 75 percent, and the temperature rises by 50-75 percent compared to the long-term average.

FB/MG