Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – March 7, 1999

In the morning, for the Watershed Day ceremony, we went from home toward Taleghan. On the way, we briefly visited the Kavesh Research Town. Two or three buildings are under construction. The plot belonging to the Office for the Publication of the Revolution's Teachings has also been planted with trees around it, with drip irrigation. On the way, Engineer Hamid Abdollahi, the deputy for watershed management of the Jihad [of Construction], gave explanations. At the heights overlooking Taleghan, we saw a watershed management site, with explanations from Jihad officials and the people who participate.

From there we went beside the village of Kash, in lower Taleghan, to a region that has a landslide-prone mountain and the program it has for treating the landslide. Recently a database of these points has been prepared. They have made files for 2,200 points, and there are probably more than 10,000 points susceptible to landslide. They spoke about the ways of prevention and treatment.

The people of the village of Kash gathered and sacrificed and expressed warm feelings, and said that every year hail damages the crops and wild boars are also a nuisance. The Friday prayer leader of Taleghan said that the mausoleum of Pir-Kashi is also there. I gave them a short speech and planted a walnut tree.

We went to the camp center of the Ministry of Energy, which was built before the revolution for the diversion dam and is now used for the construction of the Taleghan Dam and the utilization of the diversion dam. Mr. Rajabali Heidarzadeh, the representative of the Leadership in the Construction Jihad, Mr. Jafar Golbaz, the representative of Savojbolagh, and Mr. Hamid Abdollahi, the deputy for watershed management, gave welcome speeches and reports. They said that watershed management, which before the revolution was done at 70 thousand hectares annually, and in 1991 we did about 100 thousand hectares in the First and Second Plans, has been done at one million hectares annually, and they thanked me.

I too spoke about watershed management, water catchment management, desertification control, and the planting of fruit-bearing trees of olive, walnut, and almond, which were priorities in the Second [Development] Plan. Dr. Hamid Kalantari, the deputy of the Jihad [of Construction], who was there, said that there is exaggeration in mentioning the destruction of forests. He explained that from 1967 until today, about 300 thousand hectares of the northern forests have been destroyed, and about 220 thousand hectares of it has been restored, and less than 100 thousand hectares remains destroyed, but they usually say that millions of hectares have been destroyed!!

Then we went and saw the diversion dam and the huge tunnel for transferring water from the Taleghan River to the south of the Alborz, which irrigates the Qazvin Plain. The dam has a height of 10 meters, with a spillway and a discharge capacity of three thousand cubic meters, and the tunnel has a capacity of 30 cubic meters of water per second. Engineer Rasoul Zargar, the Deputy Minister of Energy for Water Affairs, and the Qazvin water manager gave explanations. Sediment has risen near the crest of the dam, and a bridge that was over the river has been buried under the sediment, and another bridge has been built over it.

On the way back, we saw the tunnel's outlet in Ziyaran. The people of Ziyaran had gathered along the route and sacrificed. We visited the construction of the water reservoir that is being built for the water transfer line from Ziyaran to Karaj. It is planned to be completed next year with special credits that I provided from my own special credits. It is said that this transfer line transfers six cubic meters per second.

On the way, Mr. Hamid Kalantari explained the Tuba project, which is being implemented to create one million hectares of fruit-bearing olive and walnut trees. It began with my follow-up and help and is now active. It has been agreed that 80 thousand hectares will be done every year. Mr. Zargar spoke about the progress of dam construction. This year, with the help of Mr. Hossein Marashi in the commission and the parliament, they have received good credits.

At two-thirty in the afternoon I reached my office. After lunch and prayer and doing the tasks, Mr. Hossein Marashi came. He gave a report on the trip to Egypt and the purchase of the shares of an Egyptian shareholder in Mahan Air, and said that Egypt's situation is not bad with the foreign currency income from tourism and American aid and so on. He said that the result of the council elections has not been in the government's favor, although in many places government supporters have been elected, but overall they have less than 15 percent of the votes. Regarding Mr. Karbaschi's case, he is worried given the recent statements of Mr. Mohammad Yazdi, the Head of the Judiciary, who has said it will probably intensify. He consulted about the type of action of the Kargozaran [Construction] Party in the upcoming parliamentary elections [of the Sixth Majlis].

Mr. Abbas Maleki, from the Leadership's Office of International Consultations, came and spoke about the disorder of the [Society of] Fighting Clergy faction in the council elections and the harms of the ill-considered actions of Mr. Ali Movahedi Savoji, the head of the Central Supervisory Board for Council Elections, and asked me to speak a little more. Today the Tehran-Karaj electric train [= Metro Line 5] was inaugurated and the spell of metro construction and years of costly obstruction was broken. With my constant support, with the efforts of the metro managers and personnel and Mr. Asghar Ebrahimi, the former CEO of the Metro, and Mohsen, the CEO of the Metro Company, it is bearing fruit.