Iran facing water shortage

[robert99]

Tehran’s population has ballooned so immensely in the past decade that Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian has warned of an impending failure to supply clean and safe drinking water to residents should the capital’s population — currently hovering at 12 million — continue to rise, Hamshahri newspaper reported on Aug. 22. “The water-security problem is very serious in Tehran and needs to be addressed immediately,” Chitchian said.

Some signs are emerging. A rising number of Tehran residents have been experiencing a drop in water pressure, according to leading economic newspaper Donya-e Eqtesad. People living on the third floor or higher have had to install powerful water pumps to suck up more water from the urban pipelines, the paper noted. The wave of pump installations has further lowered water pressure, worsening the situation for citizens without pumps.
Mohammad Hossein Bazgir, the head of the Environmental Office of the City of Tehran, has warned that water rationing is most likely what the city needs. “Iran is approaching the top 10 countries with the lowest annual rainfall. The water crisis is serious, and water rationing will begin very soon in Tehran,” Shafaf quoted him as saying on Sept. 7. He also warned that 350 million cubic meters of surface water in Tehran is being polluted by unmanaged waste in public areas, and therefore not fit for consumption.

 

[robert99]

Is Tunisia heading toward a ‘thirst uprising’?
On Sept. 12, the people of Fernana — a small town located in northwestern Tunisia — gathered at the pumping station that supplies water to Tunis and threatened to cut off the supply to the capital, before security forces intervened and prevented them from doing so. This came in response to the death of Wissem Nasri, a cafe owner who set himself on fire outside the municipality building following a dispute with its general secretary because he could not obtain permission to serve shishas to his clients.

“We can see that the regions most affected by water cuts — such as Gafsa, Jendouba, Kasserine, Sidi Bouzid and Kairouan — also suffer the most marginalization, unemployment, lack of infrastructure and lack of access to health care."

However, on Aug. 12, two weeks after his press conference about drought and the water scarcity most Tunisians experience, Seddik said in a radio interview that the government had decided to “give priority to the tourist areas” for supply of clean water.

According to the World Resources Institute, Tunisia will be one of the most water-stressed countries in 2040. In 2014, the World Bank described “water scarcity” as a “development challenge” for Tunisia, dealing with climate change, urbanization and growing demands from industry and agriculture.