
Science Weekly Has the world entered an era of ‘water bankruptcy’?
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Jan 27, 2026 Mohammad Shamsudduha, a UCL professor specializing in groundwater and water-risk solutions, and Patrick Wintour, The Guardian diplomatic editor reporting on Iran’s water collapse, discuss collapsing lakes, Tehran’s looming supply crises, drivers like overpumping and governance failure, and what ‘water bankruptcy’ means for agriculture, economies and policy. They explore monitoring, unconventional supplies and the role of climate as a threat multiplier.
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Tehran's Drought Reality
- Patrick Wintour recounts Tehran's fifth year of drought and the fleeting excitement when a few raindrops appeared.
- He describes parched parks, low night-time water pressure, and multiple reservoirs now below usable levels.
Policy Choices Deepen Water Stress
- Patrick Wintour links Iran's water crisis to decades of decisions: fast population growth, water-intensive crops, many dams, and fragmented water governance.
- He highlights that poor institutional coordination means no single authority effectively manages water.
Groundwater Withdrawn Faster Than Replenished
- Over one million pumps extracted groundwater in Iran and 90% serve agriculture growing water-intensive crops like watermelons and rice.
- Current over-abstraction exceeds replenishment by about 43 million cubic metres per year.

