Identifying 18 Watermills in Khuzestan

Tehran, 3 June 2006 (CHN) -- Khuzestan’s water and energy organization succeeded in identifying 18 water millponds in city of Baghmalek in Khuzestan province. These watermills date back to between 100 to 700 years ago and all of them have Iranian traditional names. “Since the people of this region have many difficulties with transferring and watering these mills, they still use 1000-year-old methods such as tunnel mills, etc. However, since almost fifty percent of these mills have been destroyed over time, they are not usable any longer,” said Hamid Reza Farokhabadi, head of a department of Khuzestan water organization.
According to Farokh Ahmadi, this region enjoyed a rich technology from ancient times in using different irrigation methods such as constructing channels and digging tunnels for directing the water of Abolabas River, constructing man-made waterfalls, etc for watering their paddies which can be considered as one of the tourism attractions of the region.
It is important to know that Iran has some of the oldest and biggest dams in the world. The dam of Kurit was considered the biggest dam in the world up until the blossoming of the Western technology in the 20th century. There are about 75 ancient Dams in Iran, some as old as 6000 years old.
Farokh Ahmadi also explained that identifying these constructions is a new accomplishment which has been made by the water organization of Khuzestan province. “Those one which might be usable will be reconstructed to be revived in future,” added Ahmadi.