Seen by satellite and on foot around the city, officials warn that what they call land subsidence poses a grave danger to a country where protests over water scarcity already have seen violence.
“Land subsidence is a destructive phenomenon,” said Siavash Arabi, a measurement expert at Iran’s cartography department.
Over-reliance on ground aquifers has seen increasingly salty water pumped from below ground.
When you pump water from under the ground surface, you cause some empty space to be formed in the soil,” Arabi told The Associated Press.
Iranian authorities say they have measured up to 22 centimeters (8.6 inches) of annual subsidence near the capital, while the normal range would be only as high as 3 centimeters (1.1 inches) per year.
Either way, the numbers are alarming to experts.
German scientists estimate that land under the airport is sinking by 5 centimeters (1.9 inches) a year.
Some 2 million people live in the area, he said.
Already, the drought and water crisis has fed into the sporadic unrest Iran has faced over the last year.
Iranian authorities have begun to crack down on illegal water wells.

But there’s one problem: desalination produces a typically hypersaline concentrate discharge called “brine” that requires disposal, which is both costly and has associated negative environmental impacts.
In 2000, the volumes of desalinated water produced by thermal technologies and RO were approximately equal at 11.6 million m3/day and 11.4 m3/day respectively, together accounting for 93% of the total volume of desalinated water produced.
The current production of desalinated water from RO now stands at 65.5 million m3/day, accounting for 69% of the volume of desalinated water produced.
Almost half of the global desalination capacity is located in the Middle East and North Africa region (48%), with Saudi Arabia (15.5%), the United Arab Emirates (10.1%), and Kuwait (3.7%) being the major producers in both the region and globally.
Realizing the vast potential of desalinated water remains a challenge due to specific barriers, predominantly associated with the relatively high economic costs and a variety of environmental concerns, such as brine byproducts.
Global brine production is concentrated in the Middle East and North Africa, which produces almost 100 million m3/day of brine, accounting for 70.3% of global brine production.
As with desalinated water production, high income countries produce the vast majority of global brine (77.9%).
The study also notes economic opportunities to use brine in aquaculture, such as to irrigate salt tolerant species, to generate electricity, and to recover the salt and metals contained in brine, including magnesium, gypsum, sodium chloride, calcium, potassium, chlorine, bromine, and lithium.
Substantial efforts, innovation and research are required to both (a) reduce the volume of brine being produced (i.e. increase the efficiency of the desalination process) and (b) to treat and/or use the brine that is produced in an economically viable and environmentally friendly way.
Metal and salt recovery from brine is an option, although high economic costs and energy demands remains a significant barrier to more widespread application.

Indeed, the Ancient Mariner’s lament about his raging thirst amid an abundance of undrinkable seawater could gradually become a thing of the past as improvements to desalination technology enable the large-scale removal of salts and minerals from the ocean But, there is a hitch: How to turn this abundant resource into drinking water without harming life in the sea and adjoining coastal environment because of the growing torrent of brine water and chemical pollution from nearly 16,000 desalination plants scattered around the globe.
A study published on 14 January by United Nations’ water researchers says there has been an “exponential increase” in global desalination capacity compared to 20 years ago — and a concomitant increase in the flow of polluted, hyper-salty brine water into the ocean.
While the biggest plants are located in the Middle East, North Africa, Spain and small island nations, the study estimates that there are now 15,906 desalination plants operating in 177 countries (with more than 300 in Sub-Saharan Africa).
And while removing salt from seawater remains a costly option compared with more conventional sources such as damming up rivers, the authors say desalination has vast potential if the power-generation costs and growing environmental concerns can be addressed.
The effluent can also contain toxic chemicals from antiscalants and antifoulants that are used in the desalination and filtration process (including copper and chlorine).
“Since seawater reverse osmosis effluents are growing in volume, our lack of full understanding of their long-term impacts demands more, not less, caution,” according to researchers Dr Nurit Kress and Bella Galil.
They point instead to an increasing body of research and case studies in the Middle East, Australia and California showing that brine effluents impact marine life in the vicinity of outfall pipes, including seagrasses and corals that serve as a nursery area for fish.
While Israeli legislation requires an EIA as part of the planning of a desalination plant, Kress says the true structure of some chemical treatments are not disclosed and no effluent toxicity tests are required.
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Climate change was on an accelerating course, 700 million people still lived in extreme poverty and conflicts in war-torn countries remained entrenched.
More than 815 million people remain hungry and an additional two billion people are expected to be undernourished by 2050, while almost a billion people have no electricity.
Furthermore, without action, the world’s average surface temperature rise is likely to surpass 3°C this century.
As the annual Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) returns to the emirate this week, doubling down on those UN SDG’s — in particular, a push for better and more coordinated international action on climate change — has been earmarked as a key priority for this year’s agenda, as delegations from around the world, including Saudi Arabia, head to the UAE capital to discuss advancing the world’s sustainable development.
“We welcome the expanded pillars of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week as a means of attracting an even broader range of stakeholders to join the sustainability discussion and to innovate new approaches to addressing the challenges of climate change, resource scarcity and energy access.” The focus on climate change (SDG 13) at ADSW will be a call to action for global leaders to get behind sustainability goals and turn the tide against climate change, under #WeAreCommitted, an online campaign which has brought together sheikhs, government ministers, ambassadors, business leaders and young innovators to share their commitments to sustainability.
Since the UN SDGs were established, GCC leaders in nations that are most likely affected by increasing average temperatures, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have been doing their part to push forward environmental programs and implement renewable energy projects that will reverse the impact climate change.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, led the way for renewable energy developments in 2018, with up to $7 billion worth of new tenders, according to an official from the International Renewable Energy Agency, while the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 aims to achieve the UN objectives by encouraging more investment in alternative energy.
Speaking to Arab News, Marine Pouget, policy advisor for climate politics and civil society in the MENA region at Germanwatch, which aims to tackle climate change, said: “Saudi Arabia is a key player for the energy and ecological transitions” to a more sustainable world, as one of the most important oil countries.
“This region is extremely affected by climate change, because of its natural dry climate.
“The (GCC) needs to reduce emissions, work on energy transition with ambitious targets for renewables, establish climate laws and legislation, and work on adaptation to tackle desertification, water scarcity and heat waves.” Adnan Z. Amin, director general of the IRENA, said ADSW has become the “premier meeting point for those invested in the transition to a sustainable world.” “The reason it is so important today… is that over the over past couple of years our attention has been focused on game-changing events.

Following reports of skin diseases being contracted by the river, folks of Western Province post-February 2018’s quake, a Dutch expert has analysed some samples of the river and has found there to be no serious poisonous contaminants.
United Nations water specialist Reve van den Hoven conducted a thorough analysis of various water sources in parts of North, Middle and South Fly in Western Province early in 2018 and came up with findings that pointed to the water being mostly muddy.
The initial samples taken by the UN expert were to ascertain whether the rivers and waterways had a high toxicity levels that would render the water sources and rivers dangerous to human and animal life.
After a few tests, it was brought to light that the rivers and waterways in the province were mostly a lot thicker due to the tremendous amount of soil and debris that entered the tributaries when the earthquake brought down large chunks of mountains on Feb 26.
Even more so, Mr Reve van den Hoven said that while there were no major pollutants in the water, the mud itself had caused the rivers to turn into thick slushy goo that destroyed the oxygen content in the water thus suffocating whatever fish life was present prior to the quake induced landslips.
Now a year later, villagers from the affected areas remain adamant that their fish life has not returned to normalcy and sickness from water remains a serious issue.
Senior high school teacher from North Fly’s Nomad village James Kuro said yesterday that even though the New Year was a time to be happy, most of the people in Western Province remained troubled by the water contamination that they report to be still present.
Mr Kuro said that it was vital that a new team of water specialist and assessors return to parts of North and South Fly and test the waterways and tributaries.
“Even a year later, our people are still becoming ill from the intake of contaminated water.
“We need a new assessment team to come in the New Year and assure us that our water and fish will return to normal levels and standards,” said the senior teacher.

Rwanda’s Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation Programme will receive funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB).
A major construction programme is on the way.
In Rwanda, the rate of access to drinking water and sanitation has exceeded 80% since 2014.
Yet there are peri-urban and rural areas that show disparities.
It is currently the country’s largest investment programme according to the African Development Bank (AfDB), which has also announced that it will finance the project, with a total of 115 million euros.
Funding for this new phase of Rwanda’s Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation Programme will provide safe drinking water to 1.5 million people, 700,000 of whom live in villages or peri-urban areas.
In the city of Kigali, for example, the government plans to build a drinking water supply system that should also benefit people living on the periphery.
They will be supplied by the Gasanze, Kanyinya and Bweramvura pumping stations.
With regard to sanitation, it is planned to build a centralised sewer system comprising an 86.5 km network and 3.1 km of sewer main pipes.
Like the AfDB, other development partners have invested in this programme.

WATER is one precious source on which life sustains.
The most affected area of the country is Baluchistan, where the level has alarmingly dropped to 1000 ft which was earlier 300 ft. With the growing population of the country, the need for managing more water resources is relentless and inevitable.
The very first reason is the country’s inability and failure to build and conserve large number of water reservoirs or dams during last few decades.
India is also building dams on the western rivers of Pakistan which is jeopardising the pressure that if India releases its stored water, its flow towards Pakistan will cause floods due to its natural geographic landscape of being an upper riparian state.
India is also building dam on Wular Lake whereas Pakistan due to its political disagreement among the political parties has been unable to build a consensus on Kala Bagh Dam.
It is tacit fact that during monsoon season there is surplus water, that can be stored, yet due to lack of inefficient management of water resources it all gets wasted.
Pakistan being an agricultural society is highly dependent on water and irrigation system.
For this purpose, all the stakeholders, provinces, government and political representatives should have consultative dialogue and consensus on adopting new strategies and better options for concerns on water.
Operative management of water resources need to be prioritized and policies need to be defined and resourcefully implemented.
This issue should be tackled very seriously else Pakistan will face grave consequences in near future.

Herat (Afghanistan) (AFP) Wheat and opium farmer Murad Khan Ishaqzai, 80, has never seen a drought as bad as the one ravaging western Afghanistan where more than 250,000 people have been forced to abandon their homes.
After his crops dried up in Gormach district of Badghis province earlier this year, Ishaqzai rented a truck and drove his family hundreds of kilometres through Taliban-infested areas to the neighbouring province of Herat.
There, he and his family of seven took refuge in a squalid camp on the rocky outskirts of the provincial capital where aid agencies are struggling to meet growing demand for food, shelter and sanitation.
"The farms were destroyed, our livestock perished, and we left our donkeys in the desert because we couldn’t feed them any more," said Ishaqzai, his face weather-beaten by a lifetime of working in his field.
It was only the second time in his life that drought had forced him to leave his land.
But with Afghanistan ranked as one of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, it may not be the last.
The UN is spearheading international efforts to reach 2.5 million of the three million most in need of food by mid-December, UN humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan Toby Lanzer told AFP previously.
Conditions are miserable in the camps where families displaced by the drought have settled as temperatures drop across the country.
He and his family have a canvas tent provided by an international humanitarian group.
Ishaqzai, whose health is failing, wants to go home.

Provinces such as Midlands, parts of Mashonaland and Manicaland have abundant water resources, while the Matabeleland region, the south-western parts of Masvingo province as well as areas along the Zambezi Valley suffer chronic shortages, with erratic rainfall.
Matende said most women and children in their village carry the burden of fetching water while men engage in other duties.
He confirmed that in most cases, women and children carry the responsibility of digging these wells and fetching water.
While much has been done to ameliorate water supply in urban areas, little has been done to increase access to safe water for rural communities.
Seventy-five percent of those lacking access live in rural areas and the majority of them are women and children.
In the wake of such water challenges, the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society (ZRCS) last month commissioned a $38 000 water pipeline project in Chiwenga ward 24 in Muzarabani.
More than 40% of the population in Muzarabani district without access to safe water is made up of women and children.
Infectious diarrhoea is mainly responsible for the burden caused by water-borne and water-washed diseases.
“Improving access to safe water and basic sanitation services can be the best preventive intervention strategies to reduce diarrhoea.
Unicef in collaboration with the donor community is working on projects to improve access to safe water in both urban and rural communities.

Former lawyer-investment banker from Down Under on a solo run to highlight how water scarcity will paralyse several countries in the near future if we don’t take measures now Sprinting 42 km every day for 100 days in 20 countries is the level of commitment Mina Guli, 48, has towards her mission to spread awareness about the growing water crisis across the world.
After starting in New York on November 4, she is currently in India and make her way to Mumbai on December 6, running from Thane to Gateway of India.
Without it, there is no society, no economy, no power, no food and no life.
Yet, nobody is talking about it.
"I realised how big the problem was.
So I started to run, because running is my way of going around the world and uniting people on an issue.
Highlighting unsung heroes When asked why she picked these countries, she said, "I have chosen the ones where the crisis is bigger but people are trying to find solutions; I want to highlight these people."
Besides spreading the word to save every drop of water, Guli’s aim is to find stories of unsung heroes, who are making efforts within their communities to save the precious resource.
"It has been an emotional roller coaster.
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