Issa Kalantari: Per capita water in Iran has also passed critical conditions

The head of Iran's Environmental Protection Organization says that currently more than 70 percent of the country's population is exposed to "water scarcity" and that per capita water has also passed critical levels this solar year.

Issa Kalantari made these statements on Thursday, June 14, at the farewell and introduction meeting of the new Director General of the Environmental Protection Department of Khorasan Razavi Province.

Previously, Reza Ardakanian, Iran's Minister of Energy, had considered 2018 the most difficult year in terms of water supply in the country in the last half century and warned that 334 cities with a population of 35 million people are in a state of water stress this year.

In recent years, gatherings and clashes have been reported in various cities in Iran over the transfer of water to other areas or the shortage of water for agriculture.

According to ISNA news agency, Mr. Kalantari continued his statements by stating that the reason why more than 70 percent of Iran's population is exposed to water scarcity is "one-sided approach to the environment" and "consistency" in development strategies after the 1979 revolution.

Criticizing the disregard for the environment in Iran's five-year development plans, he added: "Per capita water has fallen below 500 cubic meters this year, while below 1,000 cubic meters is considered a crisis."

Mr. Kalantari added that the water shortage situation in Iran is currently so critical that it is very difficult to resolve the country's four main environmental problems, including "improving the air in metropolitan areas, waste, fine dust in the country, especially fine dust of domestic origin, and restoring wetlands."

This senior official from the Environmental Protection Organization referred, among other things, to the city of Isfahan, a city of "several million people," which "does not have drinking water, while the country's most water-intensive industries have been established in Isfahan."

According to him, another part of Iran facing an "environmental crisis" is Khorasan, where "in Khorasan Razavi Province, over 130 percent of renewable water resources are consumed... while according to global standards, no more than 40 percent of renewable water should be used, and this consumption rate in the entire country is 110 percent."

Previously, Mohammad Mehdi Muruj Al-Shari'ah, the governor of South Khorasan, had announced that currently more than 485 villages in this province do not have even "a drop" of drinking water.

The water crisis in Iran has become so serious that the Israeli Prime Minister recently announced the launch of a website in Persian with the aim of "helping" the people, especially Iranian farmers, to recycle water and deal with the major crisis of water scarcity and severe drought in Iran.

In response to the launch of the aforementioned website, Issa Kalantari said in Persian, "Netanyahu is making a mistake; what does Iran's environment have to do with him? Let him go about his business."

"We don't dare to present environmental indicators at the global forum"

The head of the Iranian Environmental Organization continued his remarks by saying that in the world, "one unit of energy is consumed to produce one unit of goods," but in Iran, "four units of energy are consumed for each unit of goods."

He called these statistics "disgraceful" and described Iran as one of the "savage" countries in the world in terms of environmental protection.

Issa Kalantari warned of the need to change domestic policies based on the priority of environmental protection, adding that the environmental situation in Iran is such that "we do not dare to express our real environmental indicators in international forums."

Criticizing "asymmetric and excessive consumption" in Iran, he called for a strategy to protect the environment and implicitly criticized the obstacles to the continuation of the work of Kaveh Madani, his deputy, who was forced to resign due to pressure from the security apparatus and on charges of "espionage."

The police chief said, "I had a young deputy who would get on a truck to carry out environmental activities and go to different parts of the country. He didn't wait for a plane or a mission statement, and he tried to take positive action."

The statistics on the critical environmental situation in Iran are presented in a context where, since the winter of last year, in addition to the pressure on Kaveh Madani, dozens of environmental activists have been arrested in various parts of Iran.

These individuals face charges of "espionage," and judicial authorities say that Kavous Seyed-Emami, a university professor and one of the most well-known of these individuals, committed "suicide" in prison.

"Wetlands are dead in Iran"

According to Mr. Kalantari, "Today, almost no wetlands in the country are alive. Our hardest work is in the wetlands."

Referring to the lack of water in the Zayandeh Rood Riverbed, he considered the drying up of the Gavkhuni Wetland to be logical, and at the same time said that "37 dams were built on the rivers in Urmia, which has caused the drying up of Lake Urmia."

This environmental organization official presented worrying statistics, saying that "the amount of water that enters the country's soil is 19.5 billion, while our annual harvest is 51 billion."

The head of the Environmental Protection Organization further pointed out the foul smelling water of the Karun, Khorramshahr, and Ahvaz rivers, the construction of dams on all rivers in Iran for development and the resulting dust problems, the drying up of all wetlands in Yaran due to the policy of self-sufficiency in food, and the wrong policies that have caused air pollution in 10 major Iranian cities, as well as the waste problem in northern Iranian cities, and the subsidence of several tens of meters in the city of Hamedan.

According to him, to help Iran's environment, officials and people must be motivated to, respectively, "stop unbalanced and unsustainable behaviors and preserve the environment."

Previously, an official from Iran's Environmental Organization had announced that 60 of the country's wetlands, which cover about 44 percent of the total area of ​​Iran's wetlands, had dried up.

Source: Radio Farda