The president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkianhas reopened the debate on the convenience of moving the capital from Tehran to the south of the country. In his opinion, the threat posed by the lack of water to the city and the demographic pressure force him to plan a relocation as a way out of the crisis.
The president assured last week that he had already raised the idea with the supreme leader, Ali Jameneilast year. Even so, he acknowledged that the proposal has generated criticism within the political and administrative apparatus.
The announcement came during a visit to the province of Hormozgán, in the Persian Gulf, just opposite Dubai, a region that the president describes as strategic for its maritime connections and economic potential. There, he argued that direct access to open waters would boost commercial activity and reduce dependence on large internal transfers.
Tehran, Karaj and Qazvín, the three cities in the north of the territory, are suffering from a long drought and an alarming decrease in water reserves. The capital has expanded beyond any prediction and today concentrates more than ten million inhabitants. And not only that: it consumes about a quarter of the water available in Iran, a proportion that the Government considers unsustainable.
Map of Iran.
Pezeshkian assured that last year only 140 millimeters of rain were recorded. The historical average is around 260. Other calculations spread an even more precarious panorama. Levels can remain below 100 millimeters.
The reservoirs that guarantee 70% of the cities’ supply have drastically reduced their contribution due to the lack of rain and the evaporation of the remaining water. Which has forced us to resort to underground aquifers, which have been overexploited for decades. And, as a consequence, several sectors of the metropolitan area suffer land subsidence of 30 centimeters per year.
The president himself has repeatedly warned of the risk of a collapse. In the summer of this year, water cuts were common in different districts of the capital. The state press even speculated about the proximity of Day 0. The moment when demand completely exceeds supply capacity.
For Pezeshkian, moving the capital would allow activities and population to be distributed, and, at the same time, design less harmful growth for the territory. But many experts remember that historically Iran was a civilization that knew how to adapt to aridity through underground collection systems such as the qanats.
Several governments have financed colossal infrastructures without rigorous environmental studies. The result has been the proliferation of very expensive works that barely offer solutions. There are alarming data. For example, leaks in Tehran’s urban network account for almost a third of the water distributed.
The crisis is, in any case, on a national scale. The marshes of the province of Golestan, a traditional refuge for migratory birds, have emptied to the point that they no longer attract common species such as flamingos or pelicans. The combination of dams in the upper reaches of the rivers, higher temperatures and three consecutive years of drought has worsened an ecological crisis that threatens the food security of the area’s inhabitants.
The proposal for a new capital, even without concrete details or deadlines, aims to open a debate that the Iranian political class has avoided for years. It is true that the governments of the former president Hasan Rushes He already studied the matter. No significant progress. Something that the country cannot afford much longer.
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