The foul smell that, with the recent north-to-south winds, blew from the Caspian Sea to Behshahr and offended people’s senses has highlighted another improper burial site in Iran’s northern provinces. The location of this improper burial site is 2 kilometers to the southwest of the Miankaleh lagoon and 13 kilometers to the northwest of Behshahr, in an area known as “Basu-Qareh Tappeh.”

One environmental activist in Behshahr tells IranWire that over the past three days, without a mask, we couldn’t leave the house, and the smell of rot had filled the entire city.

Some Instagram accounts in Mazandaran province and Qareh Tappeh have also posted videos and photos from the site, showing that waste has been dumped in this area without any process.

A site at the entrance to the Abbasabad tourist area in Behshahr—known as “Ashgal Tappeh” (Garbage Hill)—had been used for dumping waste for 60 years, but it is unclear which authority, with what permission, assigned the “Qareh Tappeh” lands to this practice and whether a mechanism for purifying its leachate has been calculated or not. Although no structures for leachate purification are visible in the published images.