The Iranian government remain expectedly unable to help the victims of flood-hit areas in the country’s northern province of Golestan and Mazandaran, eyewitnesses told Avatoday on Sunday.
Some 270 villages were inundated, which the environmental activists say the damage could be reduced.
The Mount-Climbing Union of Golestan warned the governorate on March 19 that as “heavy rain is expected, the dam’s gate to the Gorgan River must be opened gradually to avoid flood,” but according to sources “the manager of Directorate of Suburban Water did not answer his cellphone.”
While thousands of people fled the flood areas and were in need of urgent help, Sayed Manaf Hashemi, the governor of Golestan was reportedly traveled to Canada. When the news broke out in media, Eshaq Jahangiri fired Hashemi and appointed his deputy as acting governorate.
“The Iranian state media says that the governor is in Turkey,” a social activist from Golestan told Avatoday on condition of anonymity, “but that is a lie, he (the governor) is in Canada for a family visit.”
In the absence of the government, Iranians across the country girded up their lions and formed several campaigns to collect aids to the people in the flood-hit areas.
