Thread by @nikahang

In the last 4 decades, many journalists and lobbyists have tried to normalize the Islamic regime's wrongdoings.
You may know the story of the regime's systematic human rights abuse, but I'm focusing on the destruction of Iran's water resources. @SethMSiegel @AlirezaNader @MeirJa

To understand the misconduct, check out Zayanderud: The 'life-giving' river. Overexploitation of aquifers and the river for farming and industry and incompatible green spaces has dried up the Gavkhouni marshes. The land is subsiding and sinkholes are appearing.

Lake Urmia is dying. Tens of thousands of wells and 70 dams and agricultural development plans have sucked the water out of the lake and related aquifers in the basin. This is the "Aralization" of Lake Urmia, by the regime.

All around the #Iran, overexploitation of aquifers, low-efficiency irrigation and Iran's high evaporation rate has ruined lives and fields. Millions have had to migrate to slums after losing their ancestral lands to the water crisis and land subsidence and related sinkholes.

Nothing is normal about this. Iranian leaders had been warned of the effects of climate change, witnessing the gradual decline of annual rainfalls. They still decided to go with unsustainable plans such as building hundreds of dams and inter-basinal water transfer.

Blaming only #Climate_Change for Iran's water crisis is ignoring the fact that the regime and its corrupt leaders and cronies and #Revolutionary_Guards have made billions through destructive projects, never being held accountable by the media.

Iranian media has received a big chunk of advert-money from those involved in the creation of this mess. Many critics have been censored, some have been silenced by lawsuits and pressure coming from #IRGC and the government.

In 2001, I wrote a couple of op-eds criticizing the regime's unsustainable water policy and erecting dams without understanding geology and geostructure and other technical aspects of sites where they had been built or were being constructed. I even briefed president Khatami.

Later, I was censored by the so-called #Reformist_media. The interesting point was that the major dam builders were former students who took American diplomats as their hostages in 1979. Those guys were also controlling reformist media, and paying advert money to the rest.

Another interesting point was the fact that the head of the Association of Iranian Journalists was a former employee of Bitaraf and a colleague of #Vafa_Tabesh and #Mohammad_NaimiPour, dam builders, media managers, and former hostage takers.

So, to understand the crimes against Iran's water resources, one should not be under the influence of pro-regime journalists and lobbyists who have tried to normalize the dangerous situation created by #moderates and #hardliners.

@SohrabAhmari @SamanArbabi @NazaninBoniadi @BBCHamedani @schneidercp @mdubowitz @EliLake @Firouz_Naderi @KambizGhafouri @IranianForum @jrezaian @JamshidBarzegar @kshahrooz @SMohyeddin @MarjanKg @PahlaviReza @sdehghanpour @AlexVatanka @ksadjadpour @USAdarFarsi @Photomohammad