Iran’s Capital Has Run Out of Water, Forcing It to Transfer

Iran’s Capital Is Shifting. The Motive Is an Ecological Disaster

By Humberto Basilio edited by Claire Cameron

Amid a deepening ecological disaster and acute water scarcity, Tehran can not stay the capital of Iran, the nation’s president has stated.

The state of affairs in Tehran is the results of “an ideal storm of local weather change and corruption,” says Michael Rubin, a political analyst on the American Enterprise Institute.

“We not have a alternative,” stated Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian throughout a speech on Thursday.

On supporting science journalism

Should you’re having fun with this text, take into account supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By buying a subscription you might be serving to to make sure the way forward for impactful tales concerning the discoveries and concepts shaping our world at this time.

As a substitute Iranian officers are contemplating shifting the capital to the nation’s southern coast. However specialists say the proposal doesn’t change the fact for the almost 10 million individuals who stay in Tehran and at the moment are struggling the results of a decades-long decline in water provide.

Since at the least 2008, scientists have warned that unchecked groundwater pumping for the town and for agriculture was quickly draining the nation’s aquifers. The overuse didn’t simply deplete underground reserves—it destroyed them, because the land compressed and sank irreversibly. One latest research discovered that Iran’s central plateau, the place a lot of the nation’s aquifers are positioned, is sinking by greater than 35 centimeters every year. Because of this, the aquifers lose about 1.7 billion cubic meters of water yearly as the bottom is completely crushed, leaving no house for underground water storage to get better, says Darío Solano, a geoscientist on the Nationwide Autonomous College of Mexico, who was not concerned with the research.

“We noticed this coming,” Solano says.

Different main cities reminiscent of Cape City, South Africa, Mexico Metropolis and Jakarta, Indonesia, in addition to components of California, are additionally going through day zero situations as they sink and run out of water.

This isn’t the primary time Iran’s capital has moved. Over the centuries, it has shifted many occasions, from Tabriz to Isfahan to Shiraz. A few of these former capitals nonetheless thrive whereas others exist solely as ruins, Rubin says. However this marks the primary time the Iranian authorities has moved the capital due to an ecological disaster.

But, Rubin says, “it could be a mistake to have a look at this solely via the lens of local weather change.” Water, land, and wastewater mismanagement and corruption have made the disaster worse, he says. If the capital strikes to the distant Makran coast within the south, that would value greater than $100 billion. The area is thought for its harsh local weather and tough terrain, and a few specialists have doubts about its viability as a nationwide heart. Relocating a capital is commonly pushed extra by politics than by environmental issues, says Linda Shi, a social scientist and concrete planner at Cornell College. “Local weather change will not be the factor that’s inflicting it, however it’s a handy issue accountable so as to keep away from taking accountability” for poor political selections, she says.

Editor’s Notice (11/21/25): This text was edited after posting to appropriate the date of Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian’s quoted assertion and the hyperlink to the latest research on the sinking of Iran’s central plateau.

It’s Time to Stand Up for Science

Should you loved this text, I’d prefer to ask in your help. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and trade for 180 years, and proper now will be the most crucial second in that two-century historical past.

I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I used to be 12 years previous, and it helped form the way in which I have a look at the world. SciAm at all times educates and delights me, and conjures up a way of awe for our huge, lovely universe. I hope it does that for you, too.

Should you subscribe to Scientific American, you assist make sure that our protection is centered on significant analysis and discovery; that now we have the assets to report on the choices that threaten labs throughout the U.S.; and that we help each budding and dealing scientists at a time when the worth of science itself too usually goes unrecognized.

In return, you get important information, charming podcasts, sensible infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch movies, difficult video games, and the science world’s greatest writing and reporting. You possibly can even present somebody a subscription.

There has by no means been a extra vital time for us to face up and present why science issues. I hope you’ll help us in that mission.