Iran is currently suffering from a number of dangerous natural disasters. One of the most worrying is the drying up of nearly almost water resources across the country. Many of the regime’s environmental experts have been warning about the critical situation of the Mazandaran Sea (Caspian Sea) which is witnessing a rapid water regression, on average around 20 cm annually.
This situation not only is endangering the indigenous mammal life, but also the businesses and livelihoods of the Iranian people, while many ports are becoming practically useless.
Masoumeh Banihashemi, the director of the Mazandaran Sea National Research and Studies Center stated in June, “As a result of the 170 cm decrease in the water level of the Mazandaran Sea since 1995, there has been a great retreat of the sea and an increase in the coastal area in the northern coasts of Iran.”
She added, “Only from 2014 to 2021, with a decrease of about 50 cm in the water level, about 10 to 100 meters of retreat of the Mazandaran Sea have taken place on different coasts.”
Behzad Layeghi, the Director General of the Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Center in the regime’s Meteorological Organization, said that during the last 26 years, the sea level of Mazandaran has decreased by 1.5 meters.
The decrease in the water level of the Mazandaran Sea further adds to a similar situation at Lake Urmia, which has also dried up, with environmental experts being left disappointed as they try to revive it.
Local reports have also alluded to talk of the drying up of the Sarab Niloufer lake in Kermanshah; while in Sistan and Baluchistan province, concerns about the dryness of the Hamon lake have also increased.
The Anzali, Hawizeh, and Miankaleh wetlands are also not in a good condition. The same conditions govern the permanent and seasonal rivers of Iran.
One of the most affected rivers is the famous Zayandeh Roud River in Isfahan. The expansion of occupations on the river’s coasts, agricultural lands, and villa constructions in the boundary and bed of the Zayandeh River, as well as the drying up of this river, has turned this vital artery of the country into a depot for construction debris and pasture for livestock.
The Zayandeh Roud river revival plan was implemented in 2013 but, due to the regime’s benefits and budget deficit, none of the plans were implemented. The drying up of the Zayandeh Roud is heavily affecting the land subsidence in Isfahan.
It is estimated that when the Zayandeh Roud River was flowing, an average of 130 cubic meters of water entered the Isfahan aquifer, but now due to the lack of river flow, the aquifer is not being fed, while withdrawals from underground water sources in the area are extremely high.
Annual water harvesting in the plains downstream of Zayandehrud, including Lanjanat and Najaf Abad, Segzi, and Isfahan-Barkhar, is around 1.2 billion cubic meters which are moving this region towards water bankruptcy.
Even provinces like Mazandaran are suffering from great water shortages. Officials of the Mazandaran Water Company have said that the level of underground aquifers in this rainy province has decreased, and the lack of proper infrastructures and the high population of the area, as well as unrestrained tourism, have disrupted the water supply of this province.
Dehydration and the lack of water have already taken over most of the provinces of Iran, just months after the residents of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, the people of Hamadan, and West Azerbaijan, protested the water scarcity. In Hamedan, according to the reports of the regime’s media, the Ekbatan Dam has dried up and the people of Hamedan must use soft drinks instead of water to quench their thirst.
Drought and the lack of rainfall, apart from directly affecting the water crisis in the country, increase the risk of land subsidence. This issue, along with the lack of planning by the regime’s officials, will cause an even greater water crisis that may cause some regions of the country to become unhabitable in the future.
