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.
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:
Yeah, of course. It’s not those things directly, it’s the “culture” that makes it something normal.