2019 Iran floods

From mid-March to April 2019 widespread flash flooding affected large parts of Iran, most severely in Golestan, Fars, Khuzestan, Lorestan, and other provinces. Iran has been hit by three major waves of rain and flooding over the course of two weeks which led to flooding in at least 26 of Iran's 31 provinces and at least 70 people died nationwide as of 6 April, according to the officials. The first wave of rain began on 17 March, leading to flooding in two northern provinces, Golestan and Mazandaran with the former province receiving as much as 70 percent of its average annual rainfall in single day. Several large dams have been overflowed, particularly in Khuzestan and Golestan, therefore many villages and several cities have been evacuated. About 1,900 cities and villages across country have been damaged by severe floods as well as hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to water and agriculture infrastructure. 78 roads were blocked and the reliability of 84 bridges was questioned.

Severity of the floods was greatly increased by converting flood routes and dry river beds for urban development without providing proper drainage infrastructure. According to an Iranian official, due to record rainfalls, more than 140 rivers have burst their banks and about 409 landslides have happened in the country. The impact of the floods was heightened because of the Nowruz holiday; many Iranians were traveling and many deaths occurred due to flash flooding on roads and highways. Around 12,000 km of roads were damaged by the flooding, about 36% of Iran's national road network. The floods caused at least $2.2 billion (2019 USD) in damages, mostly due to losses in the agricultural industry. Further, according to Red Crescent, two million people are in need of humanitarian aid due to the devastating floods.

Civil and armed forces have been mobilized since 24 March after the command of Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, and vice President, Eshaq Jahangiri, along with several ministers as well as army commanders have traveled to the areas affected by floods. However, the lack of government aid and delayed response at the first days quickly heightened political tensions throughout the nation. Many Iranians including politicians took to social media platforms to criticize the handling of the floods by the government, specifically President Hassan Rouhani. Civilian outrage ultimately led to deadly clashes between protesters and government soldiers. The floods prompted a large outcry against the government rule which was perceived as worsening the floods through destructive measures such as the destruction of natural plant coverage, obstruction of flood outlets, and converting flood routes and dry river beds to residential areas following the Islamic Revolution.