" I clearly remember 25 years ago, with my father and brothers standing against a wall, basking in the sunlight of a winter day. My father said: "what a pleasant sunny winter, it’s not as frozen and snowy as it used to be, I wish it remains always so..." and right after that winter, we got less and lesser rain and snow every year till now that it’s almost nothing..." Jafar a 45-year-old farmer says.
Shahrabd is one of the villages of Qazvin province in the north of Iran with almost 1000 people population. Shahrabd literary means the green village used to be a rich green village. In recent decades use of water engine for extraction of water has been increased and as a result of the water storage sharply decreased.
meanwhile, climate changes in Iran and subsequently in Shahrabd caused reduction of rainfall and change of rainy seasons. In this situation, a lot of farmers had to abandon their farms and find other sources of income like animal husbandry or immigration to nearby cities for better job opportunities. The family of Morad, a famous farmer in the village who passed away a few years ago, have lost almost everything they had after the collapse of their farming.
Complaining against corruption in local bureaus Jafar the youngest son of Morad says: “it’s not that we think water is not available. Water has always existed. But the government and corrupted staff don’t allow us to receive it on justice. Some farmers have a connection in government and can get water for their farms but we are alone. Nobody cares about us.”
His farm which is his father's inheritance has been taken by some residents of the village without his permission and they are working on that as they have access to water and Jafar believes they got permission of water extraction due to their connections. " we have asked them few times not to enter our farms but they don't listen. we can’t insist more as it will lead to a fight and we don't want that.” Jafar says.
According to the textual sources from thousands of years ago and scientific researches, Iranian plateau started facing Dehydration in its central part, where today is the heart of Iran. The drought trend in Iran still is going on. Iran is one of the driest countries in the world and with the mismanagement of the water sources, lakes, ponds, Qanat, are rapidly getting dried out
in Iran, after the Islamic revolution of 1979, ‘Construction Jihad’ was created as one of the Organizations of the Iranian Revolution. The organization began as a movement of volunteers to help with the 1979 harvest, but soon took on a broader, more official role in the countryside. One of the aspects of the Construction Jihad was digging the earth to make water wells. due to the extra extraction of water from water sources either the water sources got dried up or mixed with salty water. therefore, a lot of people had to abandon farming and that speeded up the process of desertification in Iran.
