Azernews.Az

By Trend

Iran was not receiving any financial aid from foreign countries during the difficult period in March 2019, when the country's provinces got hit with massive floods.

The head of Relief and Rescue Organization of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Morteza Salimi believes that to better prevent floods, education on these issues should be boosted, and resilence should be increased.

"Our most important actions in recent floods, that did not attract attention, were house evacuation, camp building, and the transfer of families to these camps," he told Trend.

He said that if the flood-effected families in Poldokhtar county in Lorestan Province listened to the warnings and moved the camps, there would've been less damage.

"Resilence should be raised," he said. "Houses shouldn't be built on the riverside. Everyone responsible should know that building permits in these areas should not be given in the first place."

“We certainly have to change the approach with regards to the predictions about the beginning of the wet-year period," he added. "The Red Crescent also has a duty to raise its capacities.”

He went on to add that the items that the Red Crescent received were used to strengthen the infrastructure in flood-affected areas.

He went on to add that Iran received such items as rescue boats and other equipment, including food items.

"Iran is among the world's leading countries regarding training of rescue dogs, and we even sent our trainers abroad," Salimi said. "We negotiated with Kuwait on deployment of our dog trainers there." he said.

“Some neighboring countries have asked us to help them in case of probable floods,” he said.

He said the countries including Russia, Azerbaijan, Oman, Kuwait, Turkey, Germany, Japan and France have provided help to Iran during the floods.

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