Eisa Bozorgzadeh highlighted on Tuesday that 70% of the country’s plains have been lost to subsidence.
He pointed out that the annual depletion of approximately 8,500 wells forces Iran to dig more.
Hamidreza Peyrovan, head of the Water and Soil Engineering Group at the Agricultural Education and Promotion Organization of Iran, had earlier stated that the country’s rate of ground subsidence is 10 times higher than global standards.
Official figures show seventy percent of the country’s plains are affected by the issue.
Peyrovan noted that prolonged droughts have led to a significant decrease in surface and groundwater resources, exacerbating the problem as water extraction increases.
Mohammad Darvish, former director of education and public participation at Iran’s Environmental Protection Organization, added that Iran experiences an annual ground subsidence rate of 54 centimeters, which is 140 times the critical standard set by the European Union.
