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After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up

e360.yale.edu

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Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up

#121

Post by egeozcan »

As someone of Turkish origin with Kurdish, Bulgarian, and Greek roots (somehow my genes don't fight each other!), I'm deeply saddened by the current state of the region. Growing up in western Turkey, I didn't give much thought to the eastern part of the country, let alone Iran. Funnily, my first real interactions with Iranian culture didn't happen until I moved to Germany. Aside from their cuisine being the only one besides Turkish where I actually enjoy the rice (pilav/pilaf), I've found Iranians to be such warm, kind people who have suffered far too much due to politics. Maybe that's why we connected so deeply... We share similar struggles, though I recognize that Turkey's situation involves much less external interference than Iran's... ours is mostly our own doing.

I hope the rulers solve this problem as quickly as possible without causing pain to the civilians.

Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up

#122

Post by vintermann »

bonzini wrote: post #105
vintermann wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the reason qanats weren't sufficient anymore, was that they pursued a policy of food independence, due to sanctions/a desire for political autonomy. I'm not so sure they could have done much different.

Sanctions in the 1950s?

Desire for political autonomy in the 1950s.

Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up

#123

Post by mikeyinternews »

deadbabe wrote: post #81
renegade-otter wrote: post #9

I am not saying there is no crisis coming, but I recall reading that Tehran will be out of water in two weeks, two months ago. What's up with that?

Ever heard of clickbait? It is unlikely Tehran will just evacuate all at once. They will do something drastic when the problem can no longer be ignored. And random events like rain will delay the inevitable for a while longer. Perhaps this is how climate change will end up as well.

Ever hear of reading the article you comment on? There was no mention of "moving all at once". As stated, moving the capital from Tehran "would take decades"...

Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up

#125

Post by MangoToupe »

worldsavior wrote: post #111

Not surprising. A country that invests all of his money on nuclear weapons and threatens the West with bombings- will actually care if it's capital is drying up?

I used to think people didn't actually believe the propaganda they were fed, but now I've come to realize it's the only thing many know about the world.

Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up

#126

Post by MangoToupe »

breppp wrote: post #100
timcobb wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What simple solution are you referring to? Depopulating Tehran?

As far I remember a large reason for the water crisis is subsidizing water for agriculture which does not fit the local climate This is based on some ideological pillar of being autarkic, as the Islamic Republic was generally built upon the fear of outside influence sounds like if 90% of their water goes to agriculture, mostly export, and their country is cash strapped due to their habit of kidnappings, then maybe th…

> This is based on some ideological pillar of being autarkic, as the Islamic Republic was generally built upon the fear of outside influence

This sure is an interesting way to frame fifty years of organized sanctions

Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up

#127

Post by abenga »

orthoxerox wrote: post #94
abenga wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use less water? Probably by recycling the water that is actually used. If las Vegas can survive in the desert, any city can. The problem is getting the money to apply the fixes required.

Las Vegas was built in the oasis.

True, and they haven't dried it up. Given some starting amount of water, recirculating it through the system more efficiently will keep the "running out of water" problem at bay, right?

Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up

#128

Post by layer8 »

motoboi wrote: post #17
Someone wrote: post #12

> However, unpublished national observations revealed groundwater depletion in some plains from as early as the 1950s. This coincided with the gradual replacement of Persian qanats, which were sustainable groundwater extraction systems and UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites9, with (semi)deep wells. https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/irn/ira... says Iran’s population today is over five times that o…

The article interviewed some actual hydrologists from Iran. I’m pretty sure they are aware of population growth in their homeland.

While the romantic in me is hoping that qanats would indeed still do the job, we don’t know how hand-picked these hydrologist opinions are.

Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up

#129

Post by immibis »

baxtr wrote: post #73

Maybe it’s selection bias but: The saddest thing about Iran I’ve noticed is the stark contrast between the current state of the country and the intelligence of the people I’ve met from this country.

Iran used to be a very prosperous country only a century ago, and then it democratically elected a totalitarian theocratic party.

Don't think that it can't happen here too.

Re: After ruining a treasured water resource, Iran is drying up

#130

Post by krbaccord94f »

Rain water collection structures that distill H2O in terms of pH.

Gonabad qanat network, reputedly the world’s largest, extends for more than 20 miles beneath the Barakuh Mountains of northeast Iran. The tunnels are more than 3 feet high, reach a depth of a thousand feet, and are supplied by more than 400 vertical wells for maintenance.

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