{"id":7529,"date":"2017-01-05T08:19:50","date_gmt":"2017-01-05T14:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=7529"},"modified":"2017-01-04T20:20:57","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T02:20:57","slug":"water-water-water-iran-ctd-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2017\/01\/05\/water-water-water-iran-ctd-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Water, Water, Water: Iran, Ctd"},"content":{"rendered":"

The drought in Iran continues to hit hard, impacting the pistachio crop and the water table, as Maysam Bizaer reports<\/a> in AL Monitor<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n

Climate change has caused a nationwide drought in Iran,\u00a0leading to\u00a085% of the country\u00a0being\u00a0classified as arid or semi-arid. The decline in annual\u00a0average<\/a>rainfall<\/a>\u00a0and resulting\u00a0shortage of surface water\u00a0has forced farmers to dig more wells to pump water from underground reserves. Nearly half of the 750,000 water pumps<\/a>\u00a0on Iranian farms are illegal, which illustrates why the unconstrained use of underground water in agriculture is\u00a0the main source of water waste in the country. …<\/p>\n

Ali Ahmadian, a pistachio grower from Kerman, confirmed Jalalpour’s general concerns, telling the Iranian Students’ News\u00a0Agency\u00a0on Oct. 8,\u00a0\u201cUnfortunately, pistachio farms are drying out<\/a> because of water shortages.\u201d\u00a0In addition,\u00a0he identified another, related\u00a0problem, stating,\u00a0\u201cThe quality of the water has also suffered, because the level of underground water has been going deeper, now\u00a0at 300 to 400 meters [984 to 1,312 feet].\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Finding confirmation of drought in Iran has proven difficult, perhaps because exact figures may be considered a state secret. However, there are a number of references to drought in the region, including this one<\/a> from The Art Newspaper<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n

Nuclear deals aside, a Tehran gallery exhibition will take on one of the biggest issues now facing modern Iran: a drought dating back at least seven years, with water tables falling perilously in parched regions and fabled rivers running dry.<\/p>\n

The curators Vida Zaim and Leila Varasteh\u2014who also organised the Belgian artist Wim Delvoye\u2019s current show at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art\u2014put out an open call last year seeking artists\u2019 responses to a problem that has seen Iran\u2019s President Hassan Rouhani press to improve state water management. …<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are constantly talking about political problems in Iran, but this national catastrophe could be worse than any situation. It\u2019s a subject that is worth focussing on,\u201d Varasteh said. \u201cThank God the president is taking action, but there has to be more. Too many lakes are drying.\u201d In Isfahan, a centre for traditional Iranian artisans, the famous Zayanderud River has mostly ceased to flow under the historic bridges of the country\u2019s former capital.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile, the Tehran Times<\/strong><\/em> from June, 2016, notes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

According to statistics, 31 percent of the country\u2019s total land area is suffering mild drought, 29 percent is facing moderate drought, 12 percent is being plagued by severe drought, and one percent is struggling with extreme drought, Fateh told ISNA news agency.<\/p>\n

He went on to say that 27 percent of Iran\u2019s population is facing mild drought, 32 percent with moderate drought, 12 percent with severe drought and one percent with extreme drought.<\/p>\n

Water stress is an issue Iran is facing for some years now and stems from various reasons ranging from old farming patterns and mismanagement of water resources and to the climate change.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A later article<\/a>\u00a0in the Tehran Times<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 indicates some recovery in the latter half of 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The drought in Iran continues to hit hard, impacting the pistachio crop and the water table, as Maysam Bizaer reports in AL Monitor: Climate change has caused a nationwide drought in Iran,\u00a0leading to\u00a085% of the country\u00a0being\u00a0classified as arid or semi-arid. The decline in annual\u00a0averagerainfall\u00a0and resulting\u00a0shortage of surface water\u00a0has forced farmers \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7530,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7529\/revisions\/7530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}