Tehran, Iran, has run out of water [View all]

Source: Scientific American

President Masoud Pezeshkian reportedly told officials last week that the capital of Iran would have to move from Tehran.

Since at least 2008, scientists have warned that unchecked groundwater pumping for the city and for agriculture was rapidly draining its aquifers. The overuse did not just deplete underground reserves—it destroyed them, as the land compressed and sank irreversibly. One recent study found that Iran’s central plateau, where most of the country’s aquifers are located, is sinking by more than 35 centimeters each year. As a result, the aquifers lose about 1.7 billion cubic meters of water annually as the ground is permanently crushed, leaving no space for underground water storage to recover, says Darío Solano, a geoscientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

“We saw this coming,” says Solano.

Other major cities like Cape Town, Mexico City, Jakarta and parts of California are also facing day zero scenarios as they sink and run out of water.

It’s a combination of mismanagement and climate change. The authorities have been warned not to pump the water so quickly, but they chose not to listen.

The capital may move to the Makran coast in the south. The rest of Tehran’s population will have to figure it out themselves.

Read more: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/irans-capital-has-run-out-of-water-forcing-it-to-move/