- cross-posted to:
- news@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- news@beehaw.org
Mashhad, home to around 4 million people and Iran’s holiest city, relies on four dams for its water supply. Esmaeilian said consumption in the city had reached about “8,000 litres per second, of which about 1,000 to 1,500 litres per second is supplied from the dams”.
Authorities in Tehran warned over the weekend of possible rolling cuts to water supplies in the capital amid what officials call the worst drought in decades. The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has cautioned that without rainfall before winter, even Tehran could face evacuation.
In the capital, five major dams supplying drinking water are at “critical” levels, with one empty and another at less than 8% of capacity, officials say.
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First Iran, soon the entire world
Let’s close a couple of those “AI” factories and send them some of that “AI” water.
Water levels below 3% in dam reservoirs for Iran’s second city, say reports
Honestly, I think that if a reservoir is that low, I’d have started that before this point.
This is terrifying and shameful, and it smells less like an unavoidable climate tragedy and more like decades of bad choices finally catching up. Yes the drought is real, but so are awful water management, subsidised waste, thirsty crops in the wrong places, and political appointments that put loyalty above expertise. When dams drop below 3% because of preventable policy failures, you can’t blame only the weather.
If officials wanted to avoid mass rationing and evacuation they had years to act, not just now when the taps are about to run dry. Immediate steps: mandatory cuts and smart rationing, real pricing to stop waste, emergency fixes for leaking networks, and a rapid scale up of desalination and treated wastewater for industry and agriculture. Longer term, overhaul irrigation, move crops to appropriate regions, and stop letting politics decide technical appointments.
My heart goes out to people in Mashhad and Tehran who will suffer first. Governments can still choose to be competent and honest, or they can let this spiral into displacement and unrest. Time to stop pretending policies are separate from climate, because they aren’t.
thirsty crops in the wrong places,
kagis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Iran
Wheat, rice, and barley are the country’s major crops.
Rice: Iran’s total rice production stands at 2.2 million tons per annum whereas annual consumption is about three million tons (2008)…Rice is mostly produced in northern Iran.
I can’t find a rice production map for Iran, but I’m assuming that that’s around Tehran, which is in northern Iran.
Yeah, rice paddies seem like a bad idea unless you’re a pretty wet place. That being said, we grow some in California, which is also pretty dry. But we also aren’t that short.
Its more than just Tehran, it’s a very great many places all at once, all over the world. It’s more than just politics or policy. It’s more than just climate. The fundamental problem is growth. We outgrew our resouces and groundwater, as well as surface water is just one facet of what’s driven us over the edge. This is our Wile E Coyote moment.
We are many things, sustainable is not one of them.
The fact that natural, fundamental resources like food and water are also governed by profit motives does not help. It’s not fair to say that “we” as humanity are not sustainable - datacenters guzzling water during a climate emergency aren’t. Growing food only to be on display on a supermarket fridge and then thrown out isn’t. Government subsidies for burning wood for power aren’t.
Yes, but no. You can fiddle and fart around the edges and eliminate enormous waste and save untold lives as well as prevent despair and deprivation -FOR A TIME .
The root of our predicament is the sum total of our dipshittery. It is cumulative. Yes stopping AI guzzling water and energy we don’t have to spare would be great, but alone it is not enough.
To quote the immortal Depeche Mode:
- Everything counts in large amounts.
Yeah, of course. It’s not those things directly, it’s the “culture” that makes it something normal.
the drought is real, but so are awful water management, subsidised waste, thirsty crops in the wrong places, and political appointments that put loyalty above expertise
That’s certainly not exclusive to Iran. Other places will have the same issue sooner or later.
Too bad they need to buy rockets to defend themselves against Israel and the US and don’t have money because of sanctions put on them by said countries.
