The Iranian Free Zone Overrun with Garbage

The Arvand Free Zone sits on the northwest of the Persian Gulf, where the two big rivers of Karun and Arvand meet, near the border with Iraq. The free zone covers Minoo Island and the major cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr in the province of Khuzestan. The Arvand Free Zone Organization advertises the area as being ideal for “infrastructure development and for creating relations outside the region and also to attract transit transportation” because of “the role of its transit and strategic channels at the intersection of trade routes, easy access to international waterways, proximity to the second largest province of Iraq (Basra) which is the trade gateway to Iraq and then to the Mediterranean, and also access to pilgrimage routes.”

But in recent months, the people of Abadan have frequently staged rallies and strikes to protest against the shortage of water and authorities' practice of hiring non-native workers for jobs that locals believe they can do.

These photographs show various neighborhoods in the zone that have been overrun with garbage and suffer from lack of basic services. They were taken by a citizen journalist and sent to IranWire through an intermediary.