Mehdi Toghyani, a member of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament), pointed to the occurrence of land subsidence in various parts of Isfahan and the danger of the city’s history and civilization, said the danger was so serious that “if there is no thought about it in the next few years, we should all leave Isfahan.”
Toghyani told the state-run Khabar Online website on March 28, “The lack of revival of Zayandehrud has emptied the aquifers of Isfahan plain and has caused socio-economic and environmental problems for Isfahan.”
According to this MP, the problem of Zayandehrud is not only the problem of East Isfahan and the farmers, but the whole plain of Isfahan is in danger of subsidence due to the drought of the Central Plateau River of Iran.
A number of experts believe that the subsidence in Isfahan has passed the warning stage and special measures should be taken for it.
In this regard, images of the creation of a sinkhole caused by subsidence on February 28 show that the deepest landfall in Isfahan has been recorded in the neighborhood of Kojan at six meters.
The regime’s official IRNA news agency in response to the subsidence in Isfahan province and the increasing warnings about this phenomenon, has devoted a section to subsidence news and wrote that subsidence has severely affected many plains of Isfahan province and in this situation, subsidence has exceeded the crisis.
According to IRNA, Isfahan Plain as one of the most important plains of this province on average 15 centimeters per year sinks and the population of two and a half million, urban infrastructure and monuments of this “central plateau” are in serious danger.
In July 2023, the Director General of Disaster Management of Isfahan Governorate had announced that surveying and the Center for Road and Housing and Urban Development Research had been evaluated, and the rate calculated in the plains by Geological Survey has been set between 5 and 18 cm per year in different regions.
An official for Iran’s National Cartographic Center also reported the expansion of land subsidence into cities in January 2024, saying that the phenomenon was advancing in Isfahan and in a city like Arak, central Iran.
The Director General of geodesy and National Cartographic Center had announced that the subsidence in Iran is five times the global average, and currently many provinces, including Markazi and Hamedan provinces, as well as 300 plains of Iran, are suffering from a land depletion crisis.
The regime’s Ham-Mihan newspaper also reported on the crisis of subsidence in Isfahan on January 1, and wrote that there are neighborhoods in Isfahan where all buildings are cracked, and hands pass through them; buildings that are not very old and only 10 or 20 years have passed since they were built.
The newspaper emphasized that the evidence shows that “the subsidence not only affects historical monuments such as Sayed Mosque, Naqsh-e Jahan Square, historical bridges, etc. It has also involved residential, hospitals, schools and urban infrastructure.”
Excessive water harvesting from underground aquifers as well as neglecting the necessity of protecting environmental resources has caused subsidence in most parts of Iran, with Fars news agency reporting in July 2023 that “The dreaded record of land subsidence in some parts of our country has reached 100 times higher than international standards, and conditions in many provinces, including Yazd, are declared critical to the extent that in some regions, the sinkholes have reached within a few hundred meters of people’s homes.”
