Climate Change Triggering Extreme Weather Patterns in Iran

EghtesadOnline: Approximately 2,400 devastating floods have hit Iran over the last 50 centuries. The deluge has claimed thousands of lives and caused up to $731 billion in damages.

News ID: ۷۴۹۴۶۳

18 January 2020

Qasem Taqizadeh Khamesi, director of the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company of Iran (Abfa), says climate change is triggering devastating weather across the country, including prolonged droughts in the central plateau and flash floods in northern and southern regions, Financial Tribune reported.

Climate change is expected to worsen the frequency, intensity, and impact of some types of extreme weather, namely floods.

Extreme precipitation patterns have dumped more rain and become commonplace in recent years and scientists expect these disturbing trends to prevail as the planet continues to warm.

Highlighting the importance of drawing on the experience of other countries (including Japan), he said, “Heavy floods will hit sooner or later again and it is essential to learn to coexist with the risk of inundation, instead of trying to conquer them. Floods are here to stay.”

Khamesi said creating a new culture that can help coexist with floods -- one that strikes a balance between the benefits and threats of rivers -- is the right way to the future. This probably will be the best way to adapt to climate change. He did not provide details.

(Due to the lack of updated education systems) people are “not taught what they need to do during disasters like deluge, and that is why high human and material losses are reported when natural calamities strike.”

Khamesi noted that building dams (even if there is no water to be stored), especially in the southern regions like Khuzestan, can help in controlling floods.

This is while environmentalists emphasize that expanding wetlands that act as sponge soaking up moisture, and wooded areas can slow the force of water when rivers burst their banks.

Such areas are being flattened in north Iran, especially in Golestan Province, to make room for agriculture and urban development.

In many countries like Canada and China, (instead of constructing mega structures like dams) rivers prone to floods are carefully managed.

Defenses such as levees, bunds, reservoirs, and weirs are used to prevent rivers from bursting their banks. When these defenses fail, emergency measures such as sandbags or portable inflatable tubes are used.