Residents of Hawizeh and Khafajiyeh Suffer from Breathing Difficulties Due to Fires in the Hawizeh Wetland

Residents of Hawizeh and Khafajiyeh and their surrounding villages are suffering from severe breathing difficulties due to the thick smoke resulting from ongoing fires in the Hawizeh Wetland (Hoor al-Azim), which has engulfed the entire region for over a week.

In the absence of basic health services, continuous power outages, and temperatures soaring above 50°C (122°F), the Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence and security forces, in collaboration with oil exploration companies operating in the wetland, have reportedly deliberately set fire to hundreds of hectares for security, political, and economic reasons.

Sources confirm that these fires, particularly during the peak of summer (al-Qayz), are part of a systematic plan aimed at forcibly displacing residents under the pretext of executing economic projects.

Iranian authorities claim that the smoke is a result of fires on the Iraqi side of the Hawizeh Wetland. However, an investigation by the Ahwazi Organization for Human Rights revealed that the fires are located on the Ahwazi side, which is under Iranian control, and that the Iranian government’s claims are entirely false.

This information was corroborated by Ahwazi environmental activist Mr. Kanaan, who, in an interview with a news agency, confirmed that the fires are concentrated in the city of Hawizeh, specifically near the Sohrab oil field. He added that he witnessed large areas of fire and destruction near this field, which lies 115 kilometers from Ahvaz and 30 kilometers from Khafajiyeh.

This is not the first time Iranian authorities have attempted to distort facts and blame neighboring countries. For over two decades, they have routinely justified dust storms and environmental degradation in Ahwaz with various fabricated claims. All of this forms part of a broader political agenda involving the construction of dams, the withholding of water, and the diversion of rivers through massive projects to central Iran—an effort to divert attention from Iran’s environmentally destructive policies in Ahwazi territories.