Mohammad Jafar Nazem Al-Sadat, head of the Center for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Research at Shiraz University, says that even if the average rainfall in the country returns to normal levels, Iran’s water resources will only suffice for “between 40 to 50 million people.”
On Sunday, June 9, Mohammad Jafar Nazem Al-Sadat, mentioned that some provinces of Iran experienced near-normal rainfall this year and told the ILNA News Agency: “Approaching the average rainfall is for a situation where the country’s population was between 40 to 50 million, and now with double the population, even if the rainfall is within normal ranges, it is not sufficient.”
This atmospheric sciences researcher further stated: “Currently, water reserves in Iran are depleted and there is no water for storage, and in this situation, if in a season like this spring some provinces experience near-normal rainfall, it does not mean that this amount can compensate for the shortages.”
He then explained that the number of drought periods in Fars province is higher than wet periods and said: “We are constantly facing water stress, and subsidence means the end of the soil’s water absorption capacity.”
Iran has been struggling with severe water shortages and the resulting environmental crises for over a decade.
The insufficiency of water resources for about half of Iran’s population is being discussed while two senior officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) called for an increase in Iran’s population during a speech at the “Youthfulness of Population Conference” on Saturday, June 8.
Hossein Salami, Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC, said at this conference: “If the population growth rate does not become exponential, the society will age, and an aging society is doomed to perish.”
Additionally, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, another official of this military-security institution, criticized Iranian citizens’ reluctance to marry and have children and stated: “Population decline is the most important issue in the country, and we are facing a very serious threat today.”
Ali Khamenei, the Iranian regime supreme leader, initiated the population growth project in the early 2010s, with keywords such as “population increase,” “childbearing,” and “youthfulness”; keywords that, after a decade, have been incorporated into Iran’s laws and financial documents.
Khamenei describes “population increase” as one of the tools of the country’s power and seeks to achieve a population of 150 million people.
In the 2023 budget law, at least 108.99 trillion rials (approximately $181.65 million) in direct credits have been allocated for the “population project.”
This amount is about seven times the central credits of the Ministry of Science, about four times the budget of the Ministry of Labor, Cooperation, and Social Welfare, nearly twice the credits of the Ministry of Agriculture Jihad, and three times the total credits of the Environmental Protection Organization.
