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Iran faces unprecedented drought as water crisis hits Tehran
- toomuchtodo 11mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehran_water_shortage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehran_water_shortage
- pinewurst 11mo ago"These (IRGC and government) privileged neighborhoods maintain numerous private swimming pools and spacious green spaces."
- gulfofamerica 11mo agoWell, the people aren't going to oppress themselves.
- rayiner 11mo agoI find Iran to be a truly baffling civilization. Iranians are so educated and orderly, but the country punches so below its weight class in terms of prosperity.
- jeromegv 11mo agoSanctions surely aren’t helping
- pinewurst 11mo agoTheocracy surely isn't helping
- decremental 11mo ago[dead]
- bawolff 11mo agoThe situation the article is about seems more to do with corruption and mismanagement than sanctions.
- elcritch 11mo agoIt's hard to manage a water supply and economy in Tehran when your top minds are busy running proxy wars in Lebanon and Iraq and funding or supporting ones in Syria, Yemen, and Gaza [1, 2]. It's sad to such a great people subjugated by their government. 1: https://www.cfr.org/article/irans-regional-armed-network https://www.cfr.org/article/irans-regional-armed-network 2: https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/proxy-wars/map https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/proxy-wars/map
- orbital-decay 11mo agoDams blocking the inflow to Lake Urmia that almost dried up nowadays were built by the Shah, for example. Man-made environmental damage and corruption aren't new by any measure, as well as unstable water levels and shortages in arid zones. See e.g. Aral Sea which fluctuated in the range of dozens of meters over centuries before finally drying up, which was enough to establish and subsequently abandon multiple settlements on the lake bed during the Mongol Empire.
- elcritch 11mo agoTrue, but water desalination plants also exist and Iran has plenty of oil to power them.
- bikeshaving 11mo agoGeographically speaking, over 80% of Iran’s land is classified as arid or semi-arid, and it is likely to face over 5°C of warming by the end of the century: the impacts of climate change will likely be more severe in Iran than the regional average. The region suffers from extreme weather including both droughts and flooding, seismic activity in the form tectonic uplift, particularly near the Makran coast, and constant attacks: economic attack by sanction, cyber attack on energy infrastructure, and lately even kinetic attack from neighbors. The fact that the regime hasn’t collapsed is a testament to Persian, Iranian and Islamic culture, and I hope its people find ways to prosper when the deck is so stacked against them.
- xenospn 11mo agoAlmost everything you’ve described, except for natural disasters, is an own goal. There’s literally no need for the country to be poor and on the brink of collapse. They are doing it to themselves.
- shadyKeystrokes 11mo agoOn the fruits of their hands labor you shall know them..
- maest 11mo agoThere may have been some external meddling from a certain international superpower.
- rayiner 11mo agoIran isn’t a breadbasket exactly, but it has more arable land per person than Germany, Italy, the UK, or Ireland. And vastly more than Japan. It’s relatively temperate now—future warming doesn’t explain its current situation. On top of all that, it has oil! In 1980, just after the revolution, Iran had a PPP GDP per capita above Taiwan, China, and South Korea. And only modestly behind Poland. Today those countries are far ahead. Same for Thailand, Malaysia, and Turkey. The economic sanctions are a symptom not the cause.
- FridayoLeary 11mo agoI wonder what happened... It is a crying shame and the Iranians deserve better. At the moment 16 million people may find themselves without water in the near future. I'm lost for words. If one positive thing could be found in this situation it might finally be the thing that brings down the regime. I think it's fair to say this year has been an annus horribilis for them.
- jojobas 11mo agoIt's all British/American fault. /s
- shadyKeystrokes 11mo agoDont forget the mighty CIA.. so mighty they couldn't even stop trump from ruining it for the military industrial conplex with isolationism. Anything to prevent the realization that left policies are and where rejected by the people.. if you start introspection, the movement immolates.
- mhb 11mo agoI suspect that the IRGC will be the last ones with empty canteens.
- FridayoLeary 11mo agoThey will still be empty eventually. It might still become a stable situation though. If you look at pictures from North Korea the only person who doesn't look malnourished is Kim Jong Un. Otoh water is different from food. Also it's the middle east. They might have to cut back on their aggression but their antagonists (who by now is literally everyone) won't.
- Blackthorn 11mo agoGee, I wonder what possibly could have happened over the last 50 or so years that might have damaged their prosperity.
- UltraSane 11mo agoThe incredibly incompetent theocracy irrationally obsessed with destroying Israel?
- mattmaroon 11mo agoTheir government spends itself into poverty fighting proxy wars against Israel both directly and indirectly through sanctions. It’s a theocracy so economics is not the most important thing to their leaders.
- bamboozled 11mo agoThey are governed by Islamic fundamentalists ?
- culi 11mo agoWell it's the most heavily sanctioned country on earth...
- tgma 11mo ago[flagged]
- nandomrumber 11mo agoYou got down voted for this, but it gave me a chuckle. Some people have no sense of humour. Maybe Tehran just needs to tax the locals an additional 2% so they can finally start delivering…
- tgma 11mo agoHacker News crowd does its emotional outrage voting but the similarities are uncanny: Khomeini's first famous speech when he got back was promising free water, electricity, and busses. They are delivering on the free water promise by setting Qty=0.
- pinewurst 11mo agoAnd there’s free electricity in Evin Prison too.
- tgma 11mo agoSure it’s free when connected but they had scheduled blackouts over the summer in Tehran to make sure IRGC Bitcoin miners keep working.
- _zagj 11mo agoThe air quality is also atrocious, in line with other socialist states, along with the lack of laws against animal cruelty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_welfare_and_rights_in_Iran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_welfare_and_rights_in_I...
- nandomrumber 11mo agoEquality: everyone can have nothing!
- samrus 11mo agoSanctions will do that. Both soft and hard
- _zagj 11mo ago> truly baffling It's an Islamic theocracy with nuclear as well as regional hegemonic ambitions; what about the corresponding impoverishment of its citizens is "baffling" to you?
- hearsathought 11mo agoThere is nothing baffling about it. When the world's superpower targets you for destruction, it's impossible to prosper. What's baffling is how long they've been able to persevere. Imagine if the US targeted germany or japan or saudi arabia for destruction. They'd be in far worse situation than iran.
- yubblegum 11mo agoNothing baffling about it. Religion was used by a clerical class to marshall the lumpen masses with promises of free handouts in this world and paradise in the next. Their own thinking set (of the ruling clique) are bound by ideology - whether as matter of actual belief or means of governance - so they do not make any decisions based on national interest or reason. It is the ideology that does the 'thinking'. (Sounds familiar? Warning bells for other locals, maybe? ..) Most educated Iranians you know, btw, are (drum roll) in diaspora, for good reasons.
- Arubis 11mo agoI cannot imagine the logistical nightmare of evacuating a metro area with 16 million people. Where do they go? Where has sufficient water to slake the thirst of that many?
- s0rce 11mo ago[flagged]
- bawolff 11mo agoThat's also half way across the world to a country that is not exactly on friendly terms with Iran (not as unfriendly as say usa is, but still not geopolitical friends)
- bobthepanda 11mo agoit would be one of the largest sudden migrations of people in history. to put this in perspective, 13M people fled during the Syrian Civil War. 5.7M people fled Ukraine. The evacuation of New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina was 1.2M people.
- elcritch 11mo agoNever under estimate China. AP News says China expected 270M cross region trips during the Chinese new year this year. Likely with millions out of Beijing alone by itself for this yearly event over 2 weeks.
- dyauspitr 11mo ago500 million people travel to varanasi in India for the Kumbh Mela.
- bobthepanda 11mo agoThat's not really permanent displacement though. A refugee crisis due to water scarcity looks a lot different than going home for a known major holiday for a set amount of time.
- logankeenan 11mo agoThe BBC article spelled the dam's name wrong in their interactive image. It's Latyan Dam if anyone else wanted to look up more on it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latyan_Dam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latyan_Dam https://maps.app.goo.gl/UzQrPMR4iHRdbsuP7 https://maps.app.goo.gl/UzQrPMR4iHRdbsuP7 Edit: TIL there can be different translations/spellings of Persian to English
- decimalenough 11mo agoWell, the actual spelling is لتيان, so it comes down to how you choose to romanize it.
- logankeenan 11mo agoI had no idea Romanization of Perian was a thing. Thanks for sharing! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Persian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Persian
- notepad0x90 11mo agoIran isn't that far from the Caspian. Is it not possible to develop a desalination plant? Nearby Israel has desalination plants that seem to be working out well.
- ceejayoz 11mo agoIn a year, with massive sanctions, for this many people? No. Not a chance.
- bawolff 11mo agoNot in the course of the next few weeks. This situation was avoidable but it required investment years ago. Kind of too late now.
- notepad0x90 11mo agoBetter late than never? What are other options? Abandon Teheran?
- saguntum 11mo agoThe linked article states that their president has suggested that evacuations may be necessary if rationing isn't effective. I was a little shocked when I read this suggestion from another source, but public figures are talking about it.
- jojobas 11mo agoPipes to quench a 10-million city through 100 kms of mountains (140km by road), going up 2 kms from the sea level? That's more than Israel's max distance from the sea (and it's mostly flat).
- FridayoLeary 11mo agoI'm ignorant but aren't oil pipelines much longer? They don't need to traverse mountain ranges but still. Either way i can't imagine such a project would be possible in an emergency time scale without the combined assistance of the US, Israel (desalination experts) and China. i know absolutely nothing about these things, so i don't know if it's even theoretically possible with their help.
- mensetmanusman 11mo agoIs their geography able to emulate what Africa has done with off grid pumps?
- tguvot 11mo agothey pumped out all aquifer. there are parts of city that sink at rate of 10" per year
- anonymousiam 11mo agoPerhaps if they had put more resources toward maintaining their water infrastructure instead of spending on their nuclear arms ambitions, funding Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, etc., they might not have had this problem.
- FpUser 11mo agoYou gonna say the same about the consequence of events like Hurricane Katrina? Couple of less nukes, military contracts or whatever and you could have prevented the disaster.
- anonymousiam 11mo agoHow do you prevent a hurricane? The failures of responding to the disaster were all at the state/local level.
- drewbeck 11mo agoThe failures were not all at the state/local level. The feds also had many issues. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_government_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_government_re...
- FpUser 11mo agoYou do not prevent hurricane. But you can prevent fucked up dams, corralling people in stadiums etc. etc. Anyways my point was not really about hurricane.
- BobaFloutist 11mo agoI mean yeah, the response to Hurricane Katrina was pretty widely panned.
- droopyEyelids 11mo agoYou can trace all their problems back to the 1979 Islamic revolution. If they would have simply kept the Shah as the ruler and stayed a client state to Britain, they wouldn't need to fund any of these militants, and would probably be a friend to western countries.
- nsoonhui 11mo ago[flagged]
- pkaye 11mo agoFYI there is an 2 year old Asianometry video on this topic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaEhNTpvEN8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaEhNTpvEN8
- belviewreview 11mo agoOne of the reasons that Iran's regime has failed to prepare for global climate is that fundamental Islam rejects modern science because it instead supports supernaturalism in many areas.
- yreew 11mo agoI bet they fuel their missiles with praying power too!
- 486sx33 11mo ago[dead]