Milad Balisini - Radio Zamaneh - January 22, 2024
The peaceful protests of the residents of Qara Qışlaq village in Salmas County, West Azerbaijan Province, against the irreversible disasters that could result from constructing the "Kimia Sodium Carbonate" factory on their pastures, have taken the discussion beyond this single factory. Now, the name of the factory owner, his economic ventures, and his questionable involvement in charitable activities have also come under scrutiny. This article examines the environmental damage and pollution caused by the Kaveh Soda factory in Marağa and explores the potential consequences of establishing the Kimia Sodium Carbonate factory in Qara Qışlaq. Furthermore, it evaluates these economic activities and the resulting environmental disasters through the lens of relations between Iran’s peripheral and central regions.
Ebrahim Asgarian and His Ventures
Ebrahim Asgarian Damavandi, the founder and chairman of the board of the Kaveh Glass Industrial Group, is currently overseeing the construction of the "Kimia Sodium Carbonate" factory in the pastures of Qara Qışlaq village, Salmas.
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| Ebrahim Asgariyan Damavandi |
According to the history section of the Kaveh Glass Industrial Group’s website, the group is recognized as the largest private producer of glass and crystal in Iran and the Middle East. Beyond his industrial endeavors—which range from glass production to petrochemical and chemical industries, including methanol in several factories—Asgarian serves on the boards of multiple charitable organizations. These organizations often provide avenues for tax evasion for individuals like Asgarian. In 2016, Mohammadreza Pour Ebrahimi, then-chairman of the Economic Committee of Parliament, stated during a seminar on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS):
“In a country with approximately 15,000 charitable organizations, about half of them lack transparency and do not publish their financial statements.”
As part of his charitable activities, Asgarian has established 90 schools and educational spaces across the country, most of which are located in central provinces. In addition to building sports halls and training workshops, he has funded the construction of a 250-bed hospital spanning 27,500 square meters over five floors in Markazi Province. In gratitude, the Office for Renovation, Development, and Equipping of Schools in Markazi Province published a biography and career account of Ebrahim Asgarian Damavandi.
However, for Azerbaijanis, discussions about Asgarian’s charity work or job creation often take a backseat to the environmental catastrophes and hardships faced by workers of the Kaveh Soda factory in Marağa. This factory, part of the Kaveh Glass Industrial Group, began operations in the early 2000s near the village of Vər Evi, adjacent to the Marağa Industrial Zone. Its purpose was to supply raw materials to glass manufacturers, detergent producers, and other industries.
By the late 2000s, the factory’s waste storage ponds had broken multiple times, causing extensive damage to the environment, agricultural lands, and orchards in several villages in Binab County. Over 10,000 hectares of agricultural land and orchards, along with 20 residential units in Binab County, were destroyed, and the damages amounted to 25 billion rials (at the 2010 exchange rate).
The Cancer of Kaveh Soda
According to residents impacted by the failure of the Kaveh Soda factory’s waste ponds, the factory’s waste was not merely stored in reservoirs. From the beginning, pipelines were installed to transfer factory waste to Lake Urmia. However, the pipelines lacked sufficient capacity.
Recently, factory officials have reportedly decided to install another pipeline between the Kaveh Soda factory and Lake Urmia to increase waste transfer. Considering the environmental track record of Kaveh Soda, villagers along the pipeline route have strongly opposed the decision. Apart from the destruction and pollution, villagers claim that after the waste reservoirs broke, gastrointestinal cancer cases skyrocketed in these areas.
The villages of Zuvara, Təzə Kənd, and Yengi Kənd in Binab County, East Azerbaijan Province, are just three examples of nearby villages where, over the past decade, several residents have died annually from gastrointestinal cancer.
Thus far, the visible damage to the land has been evident to the naked eye. However, the serious concern lies in the untreated waste discharged from the factory. Some reservoirs have been isolated, while others consist of unlined soil pools, causing waste to seep into underground water sources or evaporate. Research indicates that the Kaveh Soda factory has increased the salinity of groundwater in the Binab-Marağa plain, contaminating local water supplies.
Unrelenting Workers' Struggles
Regarding the harm suffered by some workers at the Kaveh Soda factory in Marağa, Article 92 of Iran's Labor Law stipulates:
“All units mentioned in Article 85 of this law, where employees are exposed to occupational diseases due to the nature of their work, must establish medical records for all such employees and conduct annual medical examinations and necessary tests through health centers, recording the results in the respective files.”
However, according to dismissed workers, some factory employees, especially those directly handling hazardous chemical substances such as acid or silica (a key glass ingredient), are terminated within a year under the pretext of workforce downsizing to avoid taking responsibility for their health. This cycle repeats with new workers. In some cases of fatal workplace accidents, factory officials have allegedly gone to great lengths to blame the deceased worker to evade liability.
With the Salt They Scattered, They Reap Storms
Ibrahim Asgariyan Damavandi now plans to establish another factory spanning 450 hectares in the pastures of Qara Qışlaq village in Salmas County. As the name suggests, the “Kimia Sodium Carbonate Factory” will produce sodium carbonate, primarily intended for use in the Kaveh Glass Industrial Group's factories. Zabihollah Kazemi, the governor of Salmas, stated that the raw materials for this production facility would be salt and lime, both available in the county’s mines.
As inferred from the name "Kimia Sodium Carbonate Factory," this facility, like the Kaveh Soda Factory in Marağa, will process extracted salt into sodium carbonate using a method that is both the cheapest and most polluting. This method, developed in the 1800s and over 200 years old, poses significant environmental challenges, particularly regarding wastewater. The alkaline wastewater generated in this process requires advanced treatment before disposal.
Thus far, relevant authorities have remained silent on the wastewater management of the Kimia Sodium Carbonate Factory in Salmas. Meanwhile, its predecessor, the Kaveh Soda Factory, has operated for two decades without a wastewater treatment plant. It was only granted temporary permission to collect wastewater in isolated lagoons and, after dilution, transport it via pipelines to Lake Urmia.
Kazemi did not address the source of the salt for this new factory, particularly whether it would be mined from the dried bed of Lake Urmia. Evidence suggests that the factory will follow the practices of the Kaveh Soda Factory in sourcing salt from the lakebed. This extraction lacks a solid environmental basis and has not been studied for its effects. However, the observed consequences include lakebed destruction, loss of natural topography, and disruption of sediment slopes.
Extracting salt from Lake Urmia's bed destabilizes the region’s ecosystem, erodes sediment cohesion, and leaves a devastated landscape that could serve as a source of salt dust storms. This dust, if containing heavy metals, poses even greater environmental and health risks.
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BBC: The dry bed of the lake is a source of salty dust that can be whipped up by strong winds into a dust storm (Credit: Solmaz Daryani) |
Wells Digging Deep into Salt
Residents of Qara Qışlaq are not only concerned about pollution, environmental destruction, and the loss of livelihoods (already evident in the track record of the Kaveh Soda Factory) but also about the factory’s potential reliance on groundwater by drilling multiple deep wells.
On January 9, 2024, the governor of Salmas told the official IRNA news agency that the factory's water needs would be supplied from surface water from the Zola River and treated wastewater from Salmas's urban sewage plant. However, the Zola River (Zolaçay) is a seasonal stream that used to flow into Lake Urmia but no longer reaches its end due to dam construction. Furthermore, the Zola Dam supplies drinking water to Salmas County. Allocating water from the dam for the factory means reducing the daily water supply for Salmas residents.
Regarding Salmas's urban sewage plant, Fahimeh Qamari, head of the Salmas Environmental Protection Agency, previously stated that the Salmas industrial park’s wastewater treatment plant has consistently failed to meet the needs of existing units and has been a source of nuisance for local villagers. Thus, the villagers’ claim that the factory will rely on groundwater appears credible.
Given that Qara Qışlaq is within 10 kilometers of Lake Urmia, deep wells in this village’s pastures could worsen groundwater depletion, cause salt intrusion, and salinize the soil in a short period. The drying of Lake Urmia has already contributed to regional climate changes, significantly reducing precipitation. Pumping groundwater disproportionate to local rainfall and aquifer recharge rates will further exacerbate the crisis. Once the aquifers collapse, they cannot be replenished, as their pores permanently close, even with rainfall.
Salmas Has Already Sunk
According to Samad Mousavi, former director-general of the West Azerbaijan Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization, "Salmas Plain ranks first in ground subsidence in the country." Yaser Rahbardin, then-CEO of West Azerbaijan Water Company, stated that excessive groundwater extraction has led to “critical levels of land subsidence in Salmas Plain.”
The governor of Salmas has also highlighted the severity of the issue:
"The 13 cm subsidence is a critical concern that threatens about 140 hectares of Salmas Plain toward East Azerbaijan. Excessive water extraction from 830 deep and semi-deep wells in this plain is one of the causes, imposing a 5 million cubic meter water deficit on Salmas’s underground reserves."
If the Kimia Sodium Carbonate Factory relies on deep wells to meet its water demands, it will exacerbate land subsidence in Salmas Plain and usher in new, catastrophic disasters for the region.
Protests and Threats of Sexual Assault
All these concerns led the residents of Qara Qışlaq village in Salmas to become seriously involved in the matter months ago. On January 6, 2024, the first images of peaceful protests by the villagers were shared on social media.
Hoping their demands would be met, the protesters held banners with images of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the former commander of the Quds Force, bearing slogans such as “My life for the leader” and “Residents of the martyr-nurturing village...” The villagers gathered to prevent environmental destruction and the collapse of their livelihoods.
The protests continued in the following days until they were violently suppressed by security and law enforcement forces. These forces attempted to disperse the demonstrators using pellet bullets, tear gas, and by beating citizens with batons. Simultaneously, officers from the Salmas Intelligence Office detained 70 villagers, including elderly men and women, and threatened the protesting women with sexual assault.
Wealth Awaiting Plunder
Five months prior to these events, when Qara Qışlaq’s residents were already entangled in disputes over the construction of the Kimia Sodium Carbonate Factory, Ibrahim Asgariyan Damavandi met with President Ebrahim Raisi to discuss issues related to the wastewater discharge from the Kaveh Soda Factory.
In a video, Asgariyan introduces the Kaveh Soda Company as the producer of 60% of Iran’s glass and states, “We have three factories with 1,600 employees, but our production has dropped by at least 40%.” Raising his voice, he concludes, “The regulations are simply not being enforced.”
As others begin speaking simultaneously, one person explains, “It’s a social issue.” He mentions that the company previously had a wastewater discharge route that faced problems, prompting the company to propose a new route, which the Environmental Protection Organization approved. In response, Raisi instructs:
"The governor should follow up on this; don’t let this wealth go to waste because of bureaucracy."
Final Thoughts
The directive to avoid letting “wealth go to waste” encapsulates the perspective of centers of power and wealth toward Iran's peripheral regions. It makes little difference whether the central authority bears the name of the pre- or post-1979 revolution government, or which administration is in power. Figures like Asgariyan, nurtured within a deeply centralist structure, have amassed enormous wealth, intertwined with the apparatus of governance. One builds schools in central regions; the other ensures wealth is extracted from the periphery, leaving those regions to endure plunder and suppression.
As Dr. Mehrdad Vahabi, a political economy researcher and professor at Sorbonne Paris North University, explains:
"In today’s Iran, it is easier for someone with close ties to coercive institutions to acquire wealth than for someone without such privileges to protect their wealth."
In this context, the wealth of individuals like the Asgariyans is derived from the exploitation of peripheral areas, despite the destruction and plundering inflicted on those regions. Meanwhile, the benefits flow to central regions as charity. The coercive forces ensure that every means is available to these elites to suppress rightful owners of resources, plunder their wealth, and devastate their environment.