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CNN World Report

New Dam Hopes to Reduce Seasonal Flooding in Iran

Aired June 17, 2001 - 14:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SHIHAB RATTANSI, CNN ANCHOR: In western Iran, flooding caused by weeks of heavy rains has left at least two people dead. The provinces of Lorestan and Khuzestan face high waters this time of year, partly because of the Karkheh River. But authorities are hoping a new dam will make floods and even droughts less of a problem.

Iran's IRIB has more on the country's biggest water projects.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAHMOUD AHMADI, IRIB REPORTER (voice-over): Can this be the wildest river of Iran? Karkheh (UNINTELLIGIBLE) at least two months of each year when it burst its banks and flooded the southwestern province of Khuzestan. This was the region hit hardest during the eight-year Iraqi-triggered war that is now having a face-lift.

(on camera): Five thousand men fought the rough nature of this former war zone around the clock for 10 years to build one of the biggest development projects of Iran.

(voice-over): Bridging a three-kilometer stretch of hills, which makes it the sixth largest such a structure in the world, Karkho Dam can hold more than seven million cubic meters of water -- 30 times more than the country's second-largest water reservoir.

VAFA TABESH, PROJECT MANAGER (through translator): Anyone who came here to visit the site could not digest how this open area was supposed to turn in a dam.

AHMADI: The far-fetched idea became 100 percent reality when Iranian President Mohammed Khatami took a tour of the project in mid- April. His more power for (UNINTELLIGIBLE) was greeted with the project workers' traditional applause.

ABESH (through translator): We tried our best not to feel disappointed midway because that could be the main impediment.

AHMADI: The happiest are the farmers who no longer see Karkheh as a seasonal nightmare. The river can now safely irrigate more than 300,000 hectares of farm land. Floods and droughts are now only stories of past.

Mahmoud Ahmadi reporting for CNN WORLD REPORT.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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