This doomsday scenario is true not only for Iran but also for other countries which are exploiting their groundwater resources. On one hand we have rising sea levels brought about by polar cap melting which threatens to obliterate low lying lands; and now we have this particular ‘Iranian’ problem.
Iran is a very dry place. Only 10 percent of the country gets enough rainfall to meet its needs. That makes the rest of the country dependent on groundwater dispersal systems like aquifers. Estimates suggest the water levels in Iranian aquifers have declined by an average of nearly 1.5 feet (half a meter) every year over the last 15 years. Iran’s water resources are under a severe pressure with population increase and a boom in industry and farming. Climate change has also caused a reduction in total precipitation.
Mahdi Motagh from GFZ, the German Research Centre for Geosciences based in Potsdam, Germany, and his colleagues are using latest satellite photography to highlight the severity of the problem. According to the data available, between 1971 and 2001 the water table in the region sunk by 50 feet (15 meters).
But the decline in the water tables creates another serious dilemma. As the water level falls, soil and rock lose their support, leading to compaction and sinking.
Mahdi Motagh says,
“We see sinkholes and cracks that can be one or two meters wide and several meters deep. In urban areas such as Tehran, residential blocks have also been affected by subsidence”
Cracks have started appearing in buildings, roads, and even pipelines. Further heightening the problem is the fact that dry soil is making earthquakes more dangerous, because the loose ground shakes more easily.
The problems emanated from the agricultural regions because of groundwater dependence and now it has started appearing in urban areas too.
According to the scientists this phenomena is not a novel occurrence.
Roland Burgmann, from the University of California, Berkeley says,
“This is quite consistent with similar basin subsidence that occurred in the western United States [near San Jose in the San Francisco Bay Area, in the Great Valley, and other basins in California] in the 20th century.”
So where does the solution lie?
Burgmann thinks it is a going to be a tough ask,
“This can only be mitigated by finding water elsewhere or by drastically reducing water use for agriculture, industry, and personal use, neither of which will be easy in Iran or many other countries facing similar water crises.”
Is this situation a precursor of things to come for arid and semi-arid countries of the world as the whole world starts feeling the thirst?
Source: National Geographic
Image: Flickr.com
