Hundreds of demonstrators protesting against shortages of drinking water in southwestern Iran have clashed with police, local media report.
The state-run IRNA news agency said the protesters gathered on June 30 in the city of Khorramshahr, some 650 kilometers from Tehran, chanting slogans against the Iranian authorities.
It said police fired tear gas late in the day as protesters threw rocks and garbage at officers.
Shots could be heard on videos circulated on social media from the protests in the port city that has been the scene of recent demonstrations, along with the nearby city of Abadan.
State television reported on July 1 that "peace had returned" to Khorramshahr and an unspecified number of protesters had been arrested.
It also said that some demonstrators carried firearms.
Critics say mismanagement by the authorities, combined with years of drought, has led to a drop in rivers’ water levels and the groundwater levels in the oil-rich province.
The protests in Khorramshahr also came after three days of demonstrations in Tehran starting from June 24 over the country’s troubled economy.
The rallies included protesters confronting police outside parliament and officers firing tear gas at the demonstrators.
They also led to the temporary closure of the city’s Grand Bazaar, where shopkeepers denounced a sharp fall in the value of the national currency, the rial.

Iran’s leaders say the country is facing its worst drought in 50 years.
That means millions will face water shortages unless something changes.
It’s an annual ritual since Ayatollah Khomeini took control in 1979.
On Iran’s al-Quds – or Jerusalem – Day thousands march shouting ‘Death to Israel’ while burning US and Israeli flags and parading effigies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It’s just more evidence of Iran’s goal to destroy to the Jewish State.
But in the midst of all that hatred, Netanyahu is offering to help the Iranian people.
Issa Kalantari, a former Iranian agriculture minister, said that 50 million Iranians could be forced out of their homes due to environmental damage; 50 million,” Netanyahu exclaimed.
“Israel recycles nearly 90 percent of its waste water.
“The Iranian regime shouts death to Israel.
In response, Israel shouts life to the Iranian people,” Netanyahu said.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – People in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region took to social media to express their fear and anger toward the sudden drying up of rivers in the country, warning of the grave consequences of Turkey and Iran’s disastrous decisions.
Water flowing from Turkey and Iran to the Kurdistan Region and Iraq has reached alarmingly low levels in recent days, with Kurdish and Iraqi officials rushing to put forward efforts to avoid an impending water crisis.
According to the Iraqi official, some seven million people in the country are expected to be directly affected by the water shortage.
In 2006, Turkey began constructing the Ilisu Dam on the Tigris River near its namesake village.
It is one of 22 dams, part of the Southeastern Anatolia Project.
On Saturday, Turkey announced the completion of the dam’s last phase.
Ilisu dam is expected to produce 1,200 megawatts of power and form a 10.4 billion cubic meter reservoir for Turkey.
That same day, Kurdish officials noted that neighboring Iran had restricted water flow to the cross-border Little Zab River, triggering a severe water shortage in the surrounding Kurdish towns.
Iraqis and Kurds alike rushed to Twitter to ask the UN to intervene and help prevent a water shortage.
Others have ironically referenced the role the UN previously played in addressing humanitarian crises in Iraq, replacing the Oil-for-Food Program with ‘Oil-for-Water.’ Other users stressed the disastrous impact the water crisis will have on agricultural lands, farming, and access to drinking water.

Iran is facing its harshest drought in the last 50 years, and nearly half the country’s population will soon face water shortages, according to the Energy Ministry.
“334 cities with 35 million people across Iran are currently struggling with water stress,” said Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian April 21 in a speech to top members of President Hassan Rouhani’s administration.
Classifying cities in three different categories, Ardakanian explained, “165 cities with 10.5 million people are in yellow, 62 cities with 6.8 million are in orange, and 107 cities with 17.2 million residents are in a red alert situation across Iran.” Iran has been experiencing long cycles of drought for the last fifty years, with the average amount of precipitation per decade dropping from 250 to 217 millimeters during that time.
Despite the historic downward trend in precipitation, Ardakanian emphasized that this year will be the driest on the books.
“The water shortage is currently Iran’s most important humanitarian challenge,” said UN Development Program Resident Representative in Iran Gary Lewis.
One Iranian MP described the situation in the later province as a “danger threatening Iran’s national security.” Reports suggest five million people living in Isfahan, in central Iran, will have no access to drinking water from July onwards.
In addition to the lack of precipitation, Iran’s water shortage is compounded by poor management of water resources, critics say.
Even Ardakanian says changing water consumption practices is a key step in ending the water shortage.
“Revising the ways water is consumed in Iran is even more important than discovering new water resources in the country,” said Ardakanian, cautioning that failing to adapt consumption practices could lead to water rationing and power outages.
A 2017 United Nations report warned, “Water shortages are acute; agricultural livelihoods no longer sufficient.

Iranian farmers in the city of Isfahan are protesting for the second day in a row over water shortages expected to lead to a cut-off by early May, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported Thursday.
The farmers claim the drought is being exacerbated by decades-long mismanagement of resources and corruption in local government structures.
Last month, local authorities diverted a river in the town of Varzaneh to the neighbouring province for industrial use after allegedly receiving a bribe.
According to VOA News, a lawmaker in parliament, Hasan Kamran, was quoted by the Iranian state news agency saying that five million people in Isfahan province will cease to have tap water by the end of May.
The rest of the provinces will most likely run out by July.
Protests have taken place all over Iran in the last few months, but the situation has escalated as a mass drought is threatening the livelihoods of rural populations.
According to the Iran Meteorological Organization, 97 percent of the country is experiencing drought to some degree.
Riot police are present among the crowds of protesters and have warned the masses about anti-government chants and possible detentions.
No arrests have been reported thus far.

Farmers in Isfahan, Iran, are continuing to protest the lack of water available to irrigate their fields.
Recent amateur video on social media showed protesters chanting slogans while security forces tried to disperse them.
Much of Iran is suffering through a drought that has sparked several protests across the country in the past month, including in towns near Isfahan and around the western province of Khuzestan.
Isfahan has been at the epicenter of the protests.
Farmers say that over the years, the government has deprived them of their right to the water sources of the region.
Iran’s farmers have struggled with several successive years of drought.
Farming has never been easy in Iran, where three-quarters of the country gets less than 8 inches of rain a year, most of which evaporates before seeping into the soil.
The government has promised to pay compensation to help the struggling farmers.
Approximately 97 percent of the country is experiencing drought to some degree, according to the Iran Meteorological Organization.
"Towns and villages around Isfahan have been hit so hard by drought and water diversion that they have emptied out, and people who lived there have moved," Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, told Reuters.

A week later the protests became more tense.
Dozens of riot police on motorcycles faced off against farmers in the same town, Varzaneh, another video showed.
“What’s called drought is more often the mismanagement of water,” said a journalist in Varzaneh, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject.
At least 25 people were killed and, according to one parliamentarian, up to 3,700 people were arrested, the biggest challenge yet for the government of president Hassan Rouhani, who was reelected last year.
Rights groups say it has driven many people from their homes.
One of the dead was a farmer, CHRI said, and locals said water rights were the main grievance.
Since the January protests, Rouhani has repeatedly said the government will do what it can to address grievances.
A senior Revolutionary Guards commander, Yahya Rahim Safavi, noted in a public speech in late February that water will play a key role for both the Islamic Republic’s national and regional security.
In late February, three more environmentalists were arrested and three weeks ago, Seyed-Emami’s wife was prevented from leaving Iran, according to family members.
“So the government may see the organizations and institutions who work on environmental issues as problematic.”

TEHRAN, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) — The Iranian government intends to restrict rice planting in areas where underground water is at alarming levels, Financial Tribune daily reported Saturday.
Water shortage will negatively impact the spring cultivation of agricultural products, the daily cited Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian as saying.
Farmers in some of the northern cities are advised to opt for the cultivation of oilseeds or fodder instead of rice, said Delavar Heydarpour, the head of Jihad Organization Mazandaran Agricultural.
Water reserves behind northern Mazandaran Province’s dams have decreased by an average of 40 percent year-on-year since March 21, the beginning of the current Iranian year, he added.
About 92 percent of Iran’s water resources are used up by unsustainable and wasteful farming practices, the daily reported.
Located in one of the world’s most water-stressed regions, Iran’s average precipitation rate has been lower than the global average for at least 10 years.
Some 37 million Iranians are said to be living in water-stressed areas.

The Global Rundown Water shortages play a role in ongoing unrest across Iran.
Skirmishes over water begin in Cape Town, South Africa, as the city approaches “Day Zero.” Malaria becomes the latest disease to stalk war-torn Yemen as the country’s healthcare and sanitation systems collapse.
Famine looms in the Democratic Republic of Congo amid conflict, displacement, and aid shortages.
Egypt insists that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will not ruin the country’s relations with Ethiopia.
“The Nile basin enjoys great resources and capabilities that makes it a source of interconnection, building and development, not a source of conflict.” –Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, President of Egypt, in reference to the recent dispute between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile river.
President Sisi insisted that the dam would not ruin Egypt’s relations with Ethiopia, despite contention over the project in recent weeks.
Reuters Latest WaterNews from Circle of Blue Deadly Legionella Bacteria Are Common in U.S. Building Plumbing – Water samples from cooling towers across the country show signs of the bacteria.
By The Numbers 14 years Length of Iran’s crippling drought, which has played a major role in the country’s unrest.
The pattern in Iran–water shortage followed by widespread unrest–serves as an example of what could happen in other countries facing water scarcity.
CBS NewsIn context: Cape Town’s “day zero” approaches.

L atest statistics by the National Drought Warning and Monitoring Center show that this year’s autumn (Sept. 23-Dec. 21) was the driest over the past 67 years, with precipitation levels declining by 53% compared to the long-term average, a warning that drought conditions will worsen.
Data from Iran Water Resources Management Company (a subsidiary of the Energy Ministry) show that the level of rainfall in the autumn of 2015 was around 88.7 millimeters that decreased to 39.5 mm in the following year and dropped further to 29.3 mm this year.
Except for Qarequm that has received 1.2 mm more rainfall this autumn than in the same period of last year, other watersheds have experienced declines of between 9 and 20 mm.
The level of rainfall in the entire country registered a 26% decline compared with the previous autumn and 53% compared with the 49-year average.
The Urmia watershed was the next area to be hit by lack of rainfall.
Some 10% are also affected by very serious drought.
Some experts have attributed the water crisis to climate change, while others believe it is caused by the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the air.
The ancient structures such as qanats and rainwater collection ponds indicate that the issue has existed in the country for ages.
The expansion of industries and growth in population, however, have exceeded the development of water management technologies, leading to desiccation of wetlands and rivers.
Experts have long warned that there is no hope of climatic amelioration and the only way out is to properly manage the available resources by drawing both on modern sciences and indigenous methods, in addition to optimizing water consumption.