The head of the risk division at the Road, Housing and Urban Development Research Center announced that with the expansion of land subsidence, a residential complex and 40 schools in northern Isfahan have been evacuated.
On Thursday, September 11, Ali Beitollahi, in an interview with the state-run ILNA news agency, described Isfahan as “the most dangerous city” in terms of land subsidence and said that, similar to Tehran, Mashhad, and other cities in Iran, excessive extraction of groundwater is the main cause of this problem.
Beitollahi added: “Isfahan has faced an aggravating factor, which is the permanent cutoff of water flow in the Zayandeh Rud river… From the mid-2010s, with worsening drought, the river began to dry up temporarily every few months, and by 2018 and 2019 it became a permanent cutoff. When water is not flowing on the surface, it does not infiltrate underground, and aquifers are not recharged.”
This official from the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development of Iran’s regime had previously reported that Iran ranks third in the world in terms of the extent of land subsidence.
On August 30, Mehdi Zare, a professor at the Seismology Research Institute, warned that the draining of groundwater, in addition to causing land subsidence, could also lead to “changes in stress on active faults.”
Why is northern Isfahan more vulnerable to subsidence?
The head of the risk division at the Road, Housing and Urban Development Research Center continued in his interview with ILNA, stating that Isfahan ranks first among Iranian cities in terms of subsidence area and that “the entire city of Isfahan is affected by this phenomenon.”
Beitollahi said that the northern areas of Isfahan are more prone to subsidence due to the “different” type of soil and the “fine-grained nature of the sediments.”
He added: “The subsidence phenomenon is so serious that out of 285 schools located in these areas, 40 have been evacuated. Several historical monuments in these regions have developed visible and tangible cracks. One residential complex was completely evacuated, and in some neighborhoods I saw room walls with cracks wide enough for my hand to pass through.”
On August 12, Isa Bozorgzadeh, spokesperson for Iran’s water industry, warned that 70% of Iran’s plains are in “prohibited” or “critically prohibited” conditions, and more than 300 plains, including Tehran, face serious threats of land subsidence.
Bozorgzadeh described subsidence as a direct consequence of excessive withdrawal of groundwater and said that a significant portion of this extraction occurs due to “inefficient management, legal loopholes, and lack of coordination among responsible institutions.”
How can subsidence in Isfahan be controlled?
Criticizing the absence of “any urgent and effective measures” to control subsidence in Isfahan, Beitollahi offered several solutions.
He suggested measures such as regulating unauthorized orchards upstream of the Zayandeh Rud dam and preventing excessive water extraction, maintaining a minimum water flow in the Zayandeh Rud river, categorizing high-consumption wells and reducing usage by at least 10% through smart meters, and implementing artificial groundwater recharge programs modeled after other countries’ experiences as necessary steps to combat subsidence in Isfahan.
