Gil News website reported on April 21, 2019, that Reza Ardakanian, the Minister of Energy, unveiled a plan for the construction of a dam in the presence the Gilan’s governor and some other regional officials in the city of Shaft. In the report, which is published almost with the exact same words in all government websites, it reads:

“The volume of this reservoir is 45 million cubic meters per year and the annual water volume is 77 million cubic meters, providing drinking water at 4.5 million cubic meters, supplying agricultural water to 6800 hectares of rice farms and gardens, as well as providing environmental water to the extent 1.33 million cubic meters per year.”

Construction of the dam in this area is entirely against the environmental considerations, and it can even be claimed it will be a medium of the environmental destruction in the future. The dam will also have a direct impact on the amount of water entering the Anzali wetland, which might cause a danger to living species in case of dry years.

The so-called environmental protection agency has issued the licensing for the construction allegedly to help the farmlands whereas, no water is needed from the dam due to the climatic condition in the region.

In the past, the major contractors of similar dams were the Revolutionary Guard or its closely held fictitious companies in different parts of the country, which has brought many environmental disasters.