Scarred Riverbeds and Dead Pistachio Trees in a Parched Iran
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/19/w...d-pistachio-trees-in-a-parched-iran.html?_r=0
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http://en.radiozamaneh.com/news/ten-provinces-suffering-seven-year-drought/
Um caso semelhante ao da Síria. Só que há gás natural e petróleo para mitigar. Ainda assim, ao mínimo de instabilidade haverá mais repressão estatal. O Irão tem quase 80 milhões de pessoas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/19/w...d-pistachio-trees-in-a-parched-iran.html?_r=0
Iran is in the grip of a seven-year drought that shows no sign of breaking and that, many experts believe, may be the new normal. Even a return to past rainfall levels might not be enough to head off a nationwide water crisis, since the country has already consumed 70 percent of its groundwater supplies over the past 50 years.
Always arid, Iran is facing desertification as lakes and rivers dry up and once-fertile plains become barren. According to the United Nations, Iran is home to four of the 10 most polluted cities in the world, with dust and desertification among the leading causes.
In Tehran, officials barely managed to keep the water running this summer as reservoirs shrank to dangerously low levels. Subsidies for water and electricity encourage overconsumption in urban areas. Isa Kalantari, a former minister of agriculture, warns that more than half of Iran’s provinces could become uninhabitable within 15 years, displacing millions of people.
Where there are no longer rivers and lakes to be tapped, desperate farmers and municipalities are turning to dwindling groundwater supplies. Drillers report that they are increasingly coming up dry, even at depths of more than 600 feet. When they do find water, they say, it is often polluted with heavy metals and arsenic, released as the drill bits break through sediment.
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The head of drought and crisis management for the Iranian Meteorological Organization reports that 10 of the country’s provinces have been grappling with seven consecutive years of drought.
Shahrokh Fateh told the Mehr News Agency on Wednesday September 2 that large parts of Semnan, Tehran, Markazi, Mazandaran, Khorasan Razavi, Southern Khorasan, Fars, Bushehr, Khuzestan and Kermanshah Provinces have been experiencing drought for the past seven years.
He added that another 19 provinces have also been experiencing milder levels of drought.
The country has been dealing with the effects of low rainfall and drought for the past seven years, and experts say the situation will persist for at least anther 20 years.
The water crisis has also been exacerbated by the unregulated exploitation of underground waters and the overuse of dams for agricultural projects.
http://en.radiozamaneh.com/news/ten-provinces-suffering-seven-year-drought/
Um caso semelhante ao da Síria. Só que há gás natural e petróleo para mitigar. Ainda assim, ao mínimo de instabilidade haverá mais repressão estatal. O Irão tem quase 80 milhões de pessoas.
