One of the most famous quotes of Iran’s revolution leader in 1979 was “water and electricity will be free for everyone.” It never happened of course and from the day I remember we faced water crisis in Iran. Water resources in Iran are limited and the government has serious issues to manage them. I grew up in Tehran, the capital of Iran and I remember days in summer with a plan that each area’ water has stopped for hours to control water consumption of the city.
Iran like any other developing country scrimmages with using technologies. For a long time, building dams have considered as the best way to provide water for areas that do not have access to water.
The first huge protest against dam I remember was against dewatering of Sivand dam. Sivand dam is located in Fars Province, Iran. It has become the center of worldwide concern due to the flooding it will cause in historical and Archaeologically rich areas of Ancient Persia and possible harm it may cause to the nearby UNESCO World Heritage of Persepolis and Pasargadae.
Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization (ICHO) was not aware of a total area of flooding until 2003 since the planning was not made public for ten years. The lake will flood 130 historical "remains", however, the larger concern has been the effect of humidity on nearby World Heritage Sites, particularly Pasargadae, an ancient capital of the Persian Empire built by Cyrus the Great the site of his tomb. Archaeologists and scientists agree that the rise in humidity from the new lake will speed up the destruction of Pasargadae to some degree.
This is one of governance failure in Iran related to dams. Spending lots of money, energy, and time to build it and fight for dewatering it. Negotiating with Scientists and Archaeologists from all over the world just because contractors didn’t does research before starting construction. It is one example but there are more than 200 dams in Iran.
As Iran is an ancient country there is always archaeological rescuing excavation before dewatering each dam. In 2010, I was working with one of these groups. I have always thought it is very depressing that these beautiful archaeological sites are sinking, although lives of people matter more. After talking with workers that were native to the area, I realized they should leave their village because all of their farms are going to sink! I think there is more harm in building dams than their benefits. A couple of lakes dried, many heritages ruined and many people displaced because of these wrong policies. To me, it sounds that the only benefit in constructing dams is making money for contractors and the ones from the government who has the power to license them.
Sivand and Tang-e Bolaghi in the news:
Overview the protests according to time of occurrence:
News of protest (2007):
Your post reminds me of Bakker's use of techne (Scott) to explore how both access to water and the management of hydraulic systems are 'rendered technical' (Li) through expert knowledge production. Particularly interesting here is that the politics of dam construction is not only about displacement but also about the destruction of archaeological heritage, direct and predicted through scientific forecasts of rising humidity levels.
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