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Protesters have clashed with security forces in southwestern Iran, a day after several demonstrators were injured in nighttime skirmishes over water shortage and pollution, Iranian state media reported.
The protests late on Sunday were held in Abadan, just south of Khorramshahr along the border with Iraq, where 11 people were hurt on Saturday when an unidentified gunman opened fire during a demonstration, according to officials.
State-run IRNA news agency did not specify how many people were involved in the Abadan demonstration, but said security forces had broken up a crowd that was “disrupting public order”.
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It said people protesting over poor water quality in a western district of the city had thrown projectiles and set fire to rubbish bins and a vehicle.
The agency did not report any further injuries, but added that water pollution in the two cities of Khuzestan province had sparked several demonstrations over the past four days.
Javad Kazemsab, a consultative assembly representative also told Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) that a vast agricultural area in Khuzestan province lack water for cultivation.
He also said that many of the province’s young people are unemployed, and urged the government to provide them with jobs.
Khuzestan was devastated by the eight-year war between Iran and the US-back Iraq in the 1980s and suffers from chronic pollution and drought.
Khuzestan has a largely Arab population that has long complained of official discrimination.
The problem of water shortage, however, is not only confined to Khuzestan.
According to a report by the Tehran-based Financial Tribune, about 40 percent of the country is suffering from “serious drought” as of December 2017.
The report also quoted a government monitoring agency as saying that the period between September to December of 2017 was the “driest” over the last 67 years, with rainfall levels declining more than half compared to the long-term average.
The latest protests come as thousands of traders in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar held a strike last week following the sharp decline of the currency against the US dollar.
In January, demonstrators also took to the streets across the country, chanting anti-government slogans over widespread unemployment and economic inequality, leaving nearly two dozen people dead.
SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies
