An FISN Research Report by Dr. Khalil Khani, Professor Emeritus, Tehran University
Dr. Khalil Khani is an Environmental Specialist and a Human Rights activist. He holds a Ph.D. in Ecology, Botany, and Environmental Studies from Germany and has taught at the University of Tehran and the Hesse State University in Germany. He is also a Doctor of Medical Psychology from the United States.
Note: FISN research reports and papers may be used freely with proper referencing and credit to the authors and the Free Iran Scholars Network.
Groundwater is a major part of global water available to mankind, found underground between rocks or soil layers, and is being accessed through wells or natural springs. Climate, land use, local geology, and water quality all affect the availability of groundwater resources. Groundwater, which is in aquifers below the surface of the Earth, is one of the most important natural resources anywhere.
Although 2/3 of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, less than 3% of it is fresh water. Pollutants in the world’s rivers, streams, and lakes render water undrinkable and harm local wildlife. Population growth has triggered overuse of fresh water, has also caused water shortages and dried up lakes, rivers, or streams before they reach the sea or downstream neighbors, and very often causing conflict.
Groundwater exists underground in saturated zones beneath the land surface. The upper surface of the saturated zone is called the water table.
Groundwater also supplies springs, and much of the water in ponds, marshland, swamps, streams, rivers and bays. Although it is “out of sight,” however, it is critical that we must pay attention to it. Groundwater is part of the water cycle that man must pay significant attention to protecting and maintaining its quality and quantity.
Many subterranean aquifers have been around for centuries or even hundreds of millennia, nurturing trees and vegetation, permeating spaces and crevices in soil, sand and rock and networking with rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands.
Contrary to popular belief, groundwater does not form underground rivers. It fills the pores and fractures in underground materials such as sand, gravel, and other rock, much the same way that water fills a sponge. If groundwater flows naturally out of rock materials or if it can be removed by pumping, the rock materials build aquifers.
Groundwater moves slowly, typically at rates of 7-60 centimeters per day in an aquifer. As a result, water could remain in an aquifer for hundreds or thousands of years.
Over exploitation of water can lead to a series of serious problems. Extracting groundwater causes drawdown. This can impact delicate ecosystems and biodiversity. Groundwater feeds vegetation and replenishes intermittent streams that communities of fish and aquatic invertebrates depend on. Wet stream beds are also important sites of microorganism activity, carbon and nutrient recycling. Lack of groundwater would cause a chain reaction in every aspect of an ecosystem, which could devastate, degrade or even deshape that ecosystem.
Sinkholes and subsidence are consequences of groundwater over extraction. It occurs when large amounts of groundwater have been withdrawn from certain types of rocks, such as fine grained sediments. So, despite various causes, groundwater withdrawal is still the main trigger of land subsidence.
Subsidence is a problem that occurs when the ground level sinks from over pumping and resulting depressurization. “The land just compacts because there’s reduced pressure, ‘It’s like taking air out of a tire; it just starts to collapse under the weight of the rock and soil.” The most extreme example of this condition is in San Joaquin Valley, California, where the ground level has sunk by more than eight meters since the 1920s — that’s nearly the height of a telegraph pole.
The rock compacts because the water is partly responsible for holding the ground up. When the water is withdrawn, the rocks fall in on itself. Man may not notice land subsidence too much because it can occur over large areas rather than in a small spot, like a sinkhole. Of course, it doesn’t mean that subsidence is not a big event.
Many places of the world have suffered from economic damages in the amount of hundreds of millions dollars over the years. Several cases around the world have revealed that subsidence induced by the extraction of groundwater occurs mostly in areas, where there are relatively recent alluvial, marine, or lacustrine deposits constituted by alternation of coarse grained water bearing strata with fine grained compressible layers.
Iran nowadays is faced with severe water conflicts and subsidence in most of its plains. The rate of land subsidence in the country is one of the highest, and increasing day by day, while the performance of the responsible governmental bodies are unsatisfactory. The various sectors of government are indeed a culprit and party to such problems.
Environmentalists and land experts are emphasizing the need to review the operation of wells, groundwater withdrawal, and water resources management. Some 29 provinces of 31 are currently at risk of subsidence. If this trend doesn’t stop, there will be regrettably great irreversible environmental degradation.
Iran’s immediate way out of its environmental crisis are to ban excess extraction of water from underground resources, a scientific review of surface water use, a critical review of IRGC dams construction, water transfer systems, and finally implement plans for the maintenance of land reserves.
As history of more than 43 years has indicated, Iran’s Clerical Regime has no plan for collection and harvesting of flash floods as man has witnessed economic devastation, loss of lives, and massive destruction of homes and country’s infrastructures in the past few years. The government’s negligence, and its systematic natural resources mismanagement has clearly been seen since 1979, the inception of Islamic Republic.
Groundwater exploitation has dramatically increased over the past decades leading to aquifer depletion. Now, this condition has caused the creation of massive cracks in more than 405 Iranian plains, such in Fars, Isfahan, Tehran, Markazi provinces and elsewhere. Iran’s government has claimed persistent droughts for water crises, which are mostly due to plundering of water resources, enormous IRGC dams construction, massive deforestation, destruction of rangelands due to overgrazing, persistent land subsidence, and desertification.
Over the past decades, some of the aquifer levels have dropped by 100 centimeters. In addition, digging illegal wells, improper irrigation methods are the other main causes of groundwater extraction induced subsidence, as out of 50,000 wells pumping underground water resources in around the capital, 30,000 are illegal. Out of 609 plains in Iran, more than 300 are vastly sinking and forbidden to enter.
As it was mentioned earlier, water shortage has created many conflicts, but these conflicts are not between people of various ethnicities in Iran. The main conflict is between ruling Clerics and Iranians that have been taken hostage by a violent and corrupt government.
The recent incident of farmers uprising in Khusistan, Isfahan, and various places in Iran are clear indications of parties to such conflict. Farmers are not alone, along come workers, teachers, retirees, and almost every walk of life these days demanding their months or even years of delayed wages, and protesting social inequalities.
Under the clerical rule, IRGC, Religious Foundations under the supervision of the Supreme Leader are the owners of the country’s wealth, including water. Thus for, the existing environmental catastrophes, degradation, and deteriorations are the results of absolute corruption, plundering, and mismanagement or better said management of Iran’s natural resources for the profiteering of the most privileged ones.
The whole Clerical Regime system doesn’t have the welfare of Iranians in their agenda, as it was clearly depicted in their handlings of Iran’s economy, healthcare, COVID19, foreign policy, water, and other socioeconomic issues. However, they apply their utmost efforts to finance terrorism in the region and around the globe, human rights violations, deceptive nuclear, long range missile activities, and absolute suppression within Iran.
Now, the land also subsists under the feet of mullahs due to unpopularity among Iranians, in the region, among neighboring countries, and its unresolved issues with the civilized world. Altogether, the clerical regime is an unfit governing system for Iran, the peace and security of the world due to its backward views of the universe and its support for islamic fundamentalism and extremism. So, it’s doing all inhumane behaviors to keep itself in power for a few more days.
Iran’s environmental crisis wouldn’t be contained only within the country’s borders but also, they will spill over and contribute to the global environmental crisis. It also certainly won’t be resolved as long as Clerics are in power. If humanity wants a relief of the Clerics abuse of human rights, fundamentalism, and the central bank of terrorism, they must have the courage to stand up with the Iranians and their resistance under the leadership of a courageous woman Mrs. Maryam Rajavi to overthrow this corrupt inhumane Regime.
* Khalil Khani is an Environmental Specialist and a Human Rights activist. He holds a Ph.D. in Ecology, Botany, and Environmental Studies from Germany and has taught at the University of Tehran and the Hesse State University in Germany. He is also a Doctor of Medical Psychology from the United States.