Tehran City Hall and Gaza: Inside Stories

The Tehran City Council sessions are open to the public and media on Tuesdays. The main issue on the agenda today was the issue of managing and maintaining the quality of water for 8.5 million inhabitants of the mega-city. Tehran has enjoyed a high quality of water in its piping system since decades ago flowing water from mountain sources has given the water in Tehran a unique quality and taste. However, gradually due the sharp increase in the city's population, water is now also taken from underground resources and the limited potentials for water purification are also a potential challenge for the future. We adopted a bill asking the government to provide necessary funding for new water resources allocation and management of the current systems. I also brought up the need for a bill on more stringent standards for water quality and also more sustainable consumption patterns . We will bring the issues to the Environment Committee and come up with an appropriate proposal next week.
By the end of the session a group of kindergarten children with banners and balloons about clean air had settled in the public section of the City Hall. This week is named Clean Air week as a gesture to promote awareness on abatement of air pollution and the role of the public in this matter. They also sang a song for us and gave us flowers, we also took some pictures together.

The children's presence reminded us of the difficult plight of children in Gaza .The ongoing tragedy in Gaza is a serious matter for Iranians. I watched a presidential debate on CNN international this morning. I was surprised to see that the debate is still only focused on national issues while an important matter like the plight of the people of Palestine was absent. We have seen many scenes here of the suffering of the people in Gaza but it is noteworthy that they say they will resist and continue their struggle against the occupiers. I saw a report on a group of Palestinian women staging a protest in Rafah against the closing of the borders, they seemed to be so confident and daring. I am not sure the news and reports that we see in Iran are also broadcast in other parts of the world. I hope the tragic news of Gaza and the injustices against this nation gets across.