Feeding the ‘water mafia’: Sanctions relief and Iran’s water crisis.
As temperatures soar and Iran’s water and power crises deepen, many officials are once again pinning their hopes on sanctions relief and a potential deal with the United States. They argue that freeing up frozen assets could ease shortages and stabilize the country. But decades of bitter experience suggest otherwise: without deep structural reform, more money will not save Iran—it will only hasten collapse.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump made headlines by stating what many Iranians have known for years: a corrupt “water mafia” has looted the nation’s resources while its leaders have “managed to turn fertile farmland into dry deserts.” He underscored the regime’s role in fueling the crisis, declaring that “their corrupt water mafia—it’s called the water mafia—causes droughts and empty riverbeds. They get rich, but don’t let the people have any of it.”
For millions of Iranians displaced by environmental degradation and water scarcity, it was the first time a sitting US president openly echoed what whistleblowers and environmental advocates have been shouting for decades.
