Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 13
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Iran's Khuzestan province Governor General Abdolhassan Moqtadaee has said that for Iran to tap its shared oil fields, the country needed to dry out the Hurolazim Lagoon, Fars news agency reported Feb. 14.
A heavy dust storm that swept across much of western Iran, crippling life in Khuzestan Province in particular, is believed by many to be the result of dry-out in the lagoon.
Head of Irans' Environment Protection Organization Masoumeh Ebtekar on Feb. 12 blamed the Ahmadinejad administration for the current drought at Hurolazim.
"During the ex-president Mohammad Khatami administration (1997-2005), the Oil Ministry had requested exploration operations on joint fields in the area. The Environment Protection Organization authorized them for the operations regarded that the lagoon would not dry out. As the administration changed, the first thing they (the ex President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad administration) did was to close the dam pouring water to the lagoon and dried out the lagoon completely. Then they drilled it in several spots."
A new wave of heavy dust storms swept across Khuzestan Province on Feb. 8 and forced the local government to close schools, universities, and other governmental offices in most of the province.
The province's Environment Protection Organization's Public Relations announced that the density of dust particles in the air reached 9.985 micrograms per cubic meter, registering a record pollution 66 times greater than the healthy limit.
In recent years, dust storms in the western part of Iran have grown in frequency and density. They have on occasions caused people serious respiratory problems.