2023-08-01 20:40:34
Iran declared this Tuesday two public holidays for the public service and banks due to an unprecedented heat wave, with temperatures which will exceed 40 degrees Celsius in the coming days, announced the official Irna agency.
“The government has accepted the Health Ministry’s proposal to declare Wednesday and Thursday public holidays across the country to protect public health,” government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi was quoted as saying by Irna. The agency said the decision was due to the “unprecedented” heat wave sweeping the country.
The Ministry of Health called on people to stay at home between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. According to ministry spokesman Pedram Pakain, the number of heat strokes reported in recent days is “alarming”. Since June, Iran has changed the working hours of civil servants, to allow them to start their day earlier and to save energy.
A very vulnerable country
Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-Balochistan is among the regions most affected by the heat, with around 1,000 people admitted to hospital in recent days due to issues related to rising temperatures and clouds of dust, according to Irna.
This region has long been plagued by water shortages. On Monday, demonstrators protested against a drop in flow due to the presence of a dam located upstream in Afghanistan, the Tasnim news agency reported.
Iran, which has more than 85 million inhabitants, is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change. Like other countries in the region, it has suffered for many years from episodes of drought and heat waves, which are expected to increase under the effect of global warming. The country is also accustomed to floods, made more devastating when torrential rains fall on parched soil.
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