What happened to Isfahan's Zayandeh Rud River?

Zayandehrud River has now turned into a dried and sad basin. Water from this river used to provide life to millions of people and tens of millions of animals, trees, and other wildlife throughout central Iran. However, Zayandehruh River, one of Iran’s largest rivers, is now completely dried. But why? What happened to Zayandehrud’s waters?
Zayandehrud is the largest river in central Iran and 74.3 percent of its waters belong to farmers and 25 percent to the government. However, as we speak the government has taken full control of all its waters and the farmers’ ration has been completely cut off.
The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and entities linked to Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have launched various industrial sites, including Isfahan petrochemicals, the Isfahan refinery, chemical industries, Sepahan Oil Company, and a number of active power plants in this region, alongside Iran’s steel industry and nuclear sites in local valleys. This means the farmers’ ration of water is decreased with each passing day and transferred to that of the government.
Establishing water pumping stations and installing numerous massive pipes have literally dried up Zayandehrud River. Much of the water from nearby mountains that flow into Zayandehrud River have been diverted to industrial sites that consume large amounts of water.
Drilling deep wells in low-water areas is another aspect of this plundering policy. The number of wells has increased from 70,000 to 700,000 across Iran during the mullahs’ rule. Right now, Iran’s aquifers are being destroyed and this is decreasing the flow into Zayandehruh River.
The IRGC is selling the water behind the dams while the government is profiting from deep wells. This leaves ordinary people and farmers of Isfahan, Chaharmahal & Bakhtiari, and Yazd provinces, alongside the entire population of central Iran, in increased suffering.
However, we still haven’t reached the answer of how did Zayandehrud River dry up?
“150 million cubic meters of water from Zayandehrud River has disappeared,” said Mehdi Toghiani, a member of the regime’s Majlis (parliament), on November 19. One can’t even begin to imagine this large volume of water.
150 million cubic meters of water can be described as such:
-if this water is poured into a 2-meter deep canal with a width of 50 meters and continuing for 1500 kilometers!
Another Majlis member asks why and how this water disappears?! Locals, however, say this water goes off the charts from the Pole Kaleh in Isfahan.
Ground subsidence is another end result of these plundering policies. Isfahan ranks first among Iran’s provinces when it comes to ground subsidence.
“Due to unbridled extraction from water resources a 2.0-magnitude earthquake in Isfahan will leave damages equal to a 6.0-magnitude quake,” according to a July 31 report wired by IRNA, the regime’s official news agency.
It is crystal clear that only state-linked organs and cartels are able to plunder this volume of water in Iran. All the while, regime officials are placing the blame on drought in order to divert attention away from the role of the mentioned state-linked mafia.
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