Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – April 18, 1992

They brought the reports. The issue of Afghanistan is at the forefront and it seems that Persians and Shiites are more active. We went to the naval base to participate in the Army Day ceremony. The ceremony and speech of Mr. [Ali] Shamkhani, [Naval Commander] and the anthem "O Iran" were performed. I had a short speech.

We flew to Minab with helicopters. On the way of the governor and Mr. Bakhshi, the director general of the water organization of the province, they explained. Minab Plain benefits from the good irrigation network of Minab Dam, but due to the small size of the land, they do not have a good yield.

We saw Minab and Minab Dam from space. The city is stretched in the form of a rectangle with a small width on the slopes of the heights. The dam was full of water. This year has also had its head. This dam, with a height of seven meters, has a capacity of 320 million meters of water. The water of the dam is green due to the presence of some kind of algae and it also has an unpleasant smell that if we want to fix it, we have to spend several million dollars every year. They said that 25% of the province's fresh water is contained and 75% is wasted. Considering the importance of water in the region, one should think.

We landed at the small airport outside the city. The people welcomed him with great splendor. The gathering of people in the stadium was huge. Imam Juma said welcome and I spoke briefly and we went back.

From there, we went to Kolahi village, located on the eastern bank of the Strait of Hormuz. Jihad Sazandegi has established a shrimp breeding center there and has built a 500 ton cold storage and ice making facility. It is interesting. They explained about the quality of spawning shrimp catch and materials, that each one lays 500,000 eggs every time. Then the breeding of eggs and larvae, catching of algae from the sea and planting and growing them for food for larvae and food for shrimps are done. This industry can have a significant foreign exchange income after ending its dependence on foreign exchange. Now we can earn seven dollars for every four dollars we spend.

People gathered together and expressed their feelings very warmly. They asked that fresh water be piped for them from eight kilometers away; I accepted It seems that the shrimp farming industry can be developed a lot. This village is one of the traditional fishing centers where there was a large number of lings.

From there we flew to Qeshm Island. We arrived late. After the very warm welcome of the people, we visited the construction projects, the desalination plants, the wharf, the commercial center and the dams under construction to contain the surface water. Mr. Shams and other managers explained about solving the customs problem.

The helicopters could not fly due to the storm and bad weather, so we canceled the evening programs in Bandar Abbas. It was bitter for me to cancel the speaker program when they said that a great crowd had come. Instead, we went to the Sunni mosque of the island and I spoke to the people. We also saw the Shiite mosque and library. We toured the city for a while and came to the affairs of the island.

We came to Bandar Abbas in the evening while the weather was bad. Most of the helicopters did not come. After resting and praying, we went to the naval base in Khark logistics ship. We were guests of Timsar Shamsai. They performed programs and hymns on the deck of the ship. The strong wind was annoying. We had dinner. We returned to the governorate late. I slept tired. I had a headache that calmed down with painkillers.