Iran’s president says moving capital from Tehran ‘unavoidable’ due to mounting water crisis

Iran’s president said relocating the nation’s capital from Tehran is likely unavoidable due to a severe water crisis resulting from overpopulation and a dwindling supply.

During a provincial tour of Qazvin in north-central Iran, President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday said the consequences of a water shortage could lead to a “very dangerous future,” according to Iran’s state media.

Mr. Pezeshkian said moving the nation’s capital was initially thought to be impossible because the government lacked sufficient funding.

“We no longer have a choice. It is a necessity,” he said, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

Tehran can’t sustain population growth or new construction projects due to the region’s water limitations, Mr. Pezeshkian said, according to IRNA.

“If we disrupt the balance of nature and fail to manage it properly, we will face a bleak future,” Mr. Pezeshkian said. “Protecting the environment is no joke. Ignoring it means signing off on our own destruction. What may bring short-term benefit today will surely create bitter consequences for us and future generations.

Analysts say the country has entered a state of permanent “water bankruptcy” in which the Islamic republic’s demand far exceeds any renewable supply, according to a recent report from the Middle East Forum think tank.

The report accuses Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of creating a ‘water mafia” that profits from ecologically destructive megaprojects such as the Gotvand Dam, completed in 2012 and one of the largest in Iran. It was built over the Karun River, the country’s only navigable river.

The Gotvand Dam project resulted in the death of 400,000 palm trees because of an exponential increase in the salinity of the Karun River, effectively turning it into a “permanent brine factory.”

Water reserves at the critical Karaj Dam, supplying Tehran, have plummeted 75% year-over-year to 28 million cubic meters. The national electricity deficit has caused widespread blackouts that further cripple the water pumping infrastructure, according to the Middle East Forum report.