Flood Damage to Mazandaran Agro Sector Estimated at $16m
EghtesadOnline: Some 2.2 trillion rials (around $16 million) worth of damage have been inflicted on the agriculture sector of the northern Mazandaran Province during the heavy rainstorm and the consequent flood on Friday and Saturday.
“The damage mostly inflicted livestock, beehives, paddy fields, citrus fruit orchards and fish farms across the province,” Azizollah Shahidifar, the head of Mazandaran Agricultural Jihad Organization, was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Mazandaran is one of the main agricultural production hubs in Iran. The northern province has about 460,000 hectares of farms and orchards, and produces some 7 million tons of agro products per year.
Abbasali Najafi, the director of Road Maintenance Bureau with Mazandaran’s Road Maintenance and Transportation General Office, said the recent flooding caused 150 billion rials (over $1.07 million) in damage to the province’s roads, according to Financial Tribune.
“Most of the damage were inflicted on roads in Tonekabon and Noshahr where several bridges were knocked down by the currents,” the official was quoted as saying by the news portal of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.
Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, advisor to President Hassan Rouhani and the head of Plan and Budget Organization, paid a visit to the northern province on Monday and said the government will grant gratuitous financial assistance as well as cheap loans to people affected by the disaster.
Devastating floods swept the northern provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran, Golestan and North Khorasan on Friday and Saturday, claiming the lives of at least eight people.
Torrential rains began on Friday and persisted through Saturday, overflowing rivers, washing away bridges, inundating houses and destroying infrastructure.