INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
demand using all bilateral and international capacities, head of the Department of Environment (DOE) Ali Salajeqeh, has said.Iran
insistently pursues its demand for environmental water rights from neighboring countries through bilateral meetings, he stated, IRNA
reported.What the neighboring country claims is that the existing conditions are due to climate change, but our data shows that during the
announcement of the Afghan government, three to four billion cubic meters of water entered the Hirmand River and then diverted to Gowd-i
zerrah, an inland drainage basin covering large parts of southern Afghanistan and Iran.In 1950, Iran and Afghanistan created the Helmand
River Delta Commission with the task of measuring and dividing river flow between the two countries.Considering that Iran has always been a
friend and helper of Afghanistan, we expect the neighboring country to fulfill its international obligations, he said.Hamoun International
Wetland also is not in a good condition, unfortunately considering that the neighboring country has not granted the water rights of the
Wetland, he lamented, expressing hope to follow up on the issue soon.In the Sistan region, an international plan is being implemented that
pursues the issue of empowering the local wetland communities, which we hope will improve livelihoods in a favorable manner, he noted.The
issue of moisturizing the soil is one of the main ways to solve sand and dust storms in Sistan, which can be done by providing the water
Iran-Afghan border made up of three lakes: Hamoun-e Helmand, which is entirely in Iran, Hamoun-e Sabari on the border, and Hamoun-e Puzak,
almost entirely inside Afghanistan
The three lakes are linked and fed by water from the Helmand River which starts in the Hindu Kush Mountains in Afghanistan.According to the
Atlantic Council (an American think tank in the field of international affairs) disputes over water between Iran and Afghanistan date to the
19th century when Afghanistan was a British protectorate
Afghanistan created the Helmand River Delta Commission with the task of measuring and dividing river flow between the two countries
Iran, however, rejected the report, asking for a larger share.In 1973, the then Iranian prime minister, Amir Abbas Hoveida, and his Afghan
counterpart Mohammad Musa Shafiq signed an accord that accepted the flow of water into Iran at twenty-two cubic meters per second with an
option for Iran to purchase an additional four cubic meters per second in normal water years.In return, Iran agreed to allow the ports of
Bandar Abbas and Chabahar to be available to Afghanistan without preconditions
However, this agreement was neither ratified nor fully implemented due to the political developments in both countries including a 1973 coup
in Afghanistan, the 1979 Iranian revolution, the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan that same year, and finally the rise of the Taliban in
1995.In the last two decades, once fertile wetlands have drastically dried up
The Taliban government closed the sluices to the Kajaki Dam on Helmand until 2002, which aggravated the impact of the worst drought the
region has experienced in many decades, brought about partially by climate change and warming temperatures.The Hamoun wetlands, which once
