Summary

Five straight days of lively demonstrations against water shortages have culminated in a police action on April 14 to disperse protestors. The decision to use tear gas came after signs that the protest movement was expanding and drawing in new supporters from the surrounding countryside.

The incident took place in Isfahan, the Iran’s third-largest city. It illustrates the growing prevalence of water conflict in Iranian society, as increasingly scarce resources are diverted away from small-scale agriculture and toward industrial interests that are at times opaque and/or tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).