Many areas suffer from severe water scarcity
Drought and poor planning deepen Iran's water crisis
Mass demonstrations against water scarcity in Isfahan.
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Water scarcity in Iran is threatening agriculture.
Reuters
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Many regions of Iran are suffering from a severe water scarcity crisis, and despite the intensification of the crisis, it seems that the leadership is not yet ready with concrete solutions that alleviate the suffering of the citizens.
There is no clearer evidence of the severity of the situation than the drying up of the Zayandeh-Rud River, which had turned the city of Isfahan into a cultural center, enabling it to become the capital of culture twice, but with the passage of time the river dried up.
Instead of filling its stream, thousands of protesters flooded the dry stream last month to protest the state's management of water resources, during the worst drought in decades.
Video clips circulated on social media showed security forces intervening with batons to suppress the protesters, which led to injuries among them.
And bloody clashes erupted this summer in Khuzestan province, 180 miles away, where decades of oil exploitation have dried up land, destroying what was once fertile soil.
growing frustration
Writer Gulnar Metwally, Iranian coverage official for Bloomberg News, explains that as tensions between Iran and the United States intensify, so has frustration among citizens about the country's leadership's response to the sanctions that impede life.
Popular support for the leadership has also fallen to a record level, in part due to the suppression of the opposition.
In the midst of this, the water scarcity crisis, caused by decades of uncalculated industrial expansion, has become a challenge that may be even more serious than Tehran's battle with Washington to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
The writer quoted (Tahera), an environmental activist who participated in the protests in Isfahan, and asked that her full name not be used for fear of harassment, saying that "the situation of drinking water is getting worse, and farmers are starting to lose their livelihood."
The author pointed out that climate change has exposed the weaknesses of an economy based on oil extraction and unsustainable agricultural practices.
According to a study published in 2019 in the scientific journal Nature, as the Earth warms into the middle of the century, Iran is likely to experience longer periods of extreme temperatures as well as more frequent droughts and floods.
The researchers explained that the same applies to many regions, but the impact will be severe in Iran in particular, and that "without deliberate measures to adapt, some areas of the country may become less habitable in the future."
Iran's Fars News Agency warns that more than 300 towns and cities are now facing severe water pressure.
Meteorologists estimate that 97 percent of the country has been affected by drought, while one academic says 20 million people have had to move to cities because the land is no longer arable due to the drought.
Several dams have recorded record levels of evaporation this year, causing blackouts at the height of one of the hottest summers on record.
Snowfall, which supplies 70% of water in Zayandeh Rud, decreased by 14% between 2017 and 2020.
Overconsumption
Even with supplies in short supply, Iranians who still have access to water are overconsumption. A person living in Tehran uses three times as much water as a person in Hamburg, Germany. Despite the drought, parks and public parks in the Iranian capital are still irrigated by flooding. It is also common to spray sidewalks and roads to soften the atmosphere. Citizens resort to illegally digging wells to search for water, even as more metered wells appear. "Farmers in Isfahan have illegally drilled more than 10,000 wells in recent years," a former official with the local state water company told IRNA.
Iran, the world's sixth-largest producer of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, appears reluctant to join global efforts to reduce emissions or invest in water conservation measures.
The economy depends on oil production and heavy industry to survive.
While most officials admit that there is a problem, some of the most influential clerics are keen to classify the recent protests as a conspiracy theory, or to assert that the problem of water shortages can only be solved by praying for rain.
In a television interview on December 5, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi acknowledged the existence of a water crisis, and stated that officials had been assigned "to get to the root of the problem and work to solve it."
Although he said, "There are problems and there are solutions as well," the government has not yet published any detailed plans.
The roots of the crisis
Sohail Sharif, who works in pistachio cultivation in the central Iranian province of Kerman, traces the roots of the crisis to the policies implemented after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, in which the new religious leadership, isolated from the West and vulnerable to an invasion from Iraq, sought to ensure self-sufficiency and food security.
It encouraged families in the villages to expand agricultural activity, and provided them with subsidized water.
This was followed by a massive expansion of dam construction.
The Iranian leadership has a well-known response to any criticism directed at it regarding the management of the water crisis, which is to attribute the reason to US sanctions.
During the recent climate summit in Glasgow, Iran's Vice President for Environmental Affairs said that "the sanctions prevent Iran from taking steps to protect the environment."
The government has pledged to cut emissions by 4 percent by 2030 through "business as usual," a target that effectively means five times emissions levels in the 1990s, and it could target a 12 percent cut if sanctions are lifted.
Naturally, the sanctions had their effect, as they disrupted European projects aimed at developing water management systems in Iran.
Yet even when sanctions were eased, as in 2016, policymakers focused on modernizing the oil industry as the fastest way to support growth.
In times of economic turmoil, one of the easiest ways to avoid disruption is to create jobs, by launching large infrastructure projects, such as dams and refineries.
• More than 300 towns and cities are now facing severe water pressure. Meteorologists estimate that 97 percent of the country has been affected by drought, while one academic says 20 million people have had to move to cities because the land is no longer arable due to the drought.
• Instead of water filling the Zayandeh River, thousands of protesters flooded the dry stream last month to protest against the state's management of water resources, during the worst drought in decades.
• With global warming until the middle of the century, Iran is likely to experience longer periods of extreme temperatures, as well as more frequent droughts and floods.
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