From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

Iran is currently facing ecological catastrophe caused by drought and misallocation of public resources. But apparently climate cash will fix the problem.

COP30: Iran says climate action impossible without financing

November 21, 2025 – 15:18

TEHRAN – Sediqeh Torabi, an official with the Department of Environment (DOE), has emphasized the need for sufficient and predictable financing for implementing climate actions by developing countries.

Referring to the intensifying impacts of climate change in one of the world’s driest and most sensitive regions, Torabi said that frequent droughts, water scarcity, extreme heat, forest fires, as well as sand and dust storms have adversely affected Iran.

She made the remarks on Tuesday, November 18, during a plenary session at the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP30, being held in Belém, Brazil.

The official noted that Iran cannot support raised ambition in emissions reductions or new targets unless financing, technology transfer, and capacity-building for developing countries are fully and reliably provided. She said that ambition must be matched by the means of implementation.

…

In a meeting with Anacláudia Rossbach, executive director of the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), Ansari highlighted the need for comprehensive urban planning to mitigate climate change impacts, improve the sustainability and resilience of cities in the face of rising heat.

“Despite economic and climate challenges, Iran is doing its best to utilize regional and global scientific capacities to make cities more sustainable,” She noted.

Rossbach, for her part, emphasized the effective role of the UN-Habitat office in Iran. The official stressed the need to boost joint efforts in improving urban management and climate risk management, as well as improving the quality of urban life.

…Read more: https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/520662/COP30-Iran-says-climate-action-impossible-without-financing

Iran has experienced severe drought for the last 5 years. But Iran’s problems aren’t just caused by lack of rainfall.

Iran’s water crisis exposes collapse of the regime

Decades of corruption, mismanagement and misplaced nuclear priorities leave Tehran facing rationing, empty reservoirs and potential evacuation

By Ilan Berman – Monday, November 17, 2025

The taps are running dry in Tehran.

Iran’s capital is now experiencing a massive and deepening water shortage. After months of drought and scorching heat, the five reservoirs feeding the city of more than 10 million are mostly empty. Local authorities have been forced to mandate water rationing, and the situation has become so dire that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian recently warned that, unless the region experiences rainfall in the coming weeks, the city may need to be evacuated altogether.

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The reasons have everything to do with the skewed priorities of Iran’s ruling clerical regime. True to their revolutionary pedigree, Iran’s ayatollahs have consistently preferred guns over butter. They have poured billions of dollars into the country’s nuclear program, its burgeoning arsenal of ballistic missiles and its extensive network of terrorist proxies.

What they have not done is make a meaningful, sustained nationwide effort to reverse the country’s worsening water situation. Now that the crisis has truly hit, Iranian officials are predictably trying to deflect the blame onto the Iranian people themselves.

…Read more: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/nov/17/irans-water-crisis-exposes-collapse-regime/

The author of the following article is Nikahang Kowsar, a University of Tehran trained geologist who once stood for election as a reformist candidate for Tehran City Council, but currently lives in exile in the United States.

Grand Theft Hydrology: How Iran’s Water Mafia Engineered a Drought—Then Sent the Bill

Iran’s drought isn’t some angry weather god punishing us with a dry spell.

NIK KOWSAR
MAY 23, 2025

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Enter the Water Mafia—a term I’ve been using for years, finally getting the attention it deserves after some recent geopolitical truth bombs. Imagine a cozy little cartel of IRGC contractors, consultants with magical impact assessments, ex-revolutionaries rebranded as “hydropolitical visionaries,” and a revolving door of Energy Ministry officials who always seem to retire in Dubai or Vancouver… right around the time the rivers disappear.

These folks don’t manage collapse—they monetize it. Every dried-up wetland, every cracked riverbed, every tanker-truck village is another invoice: signed, sealed, and cashed.

And here’s the real magic: even in wet years, there’s still a crisis. Why? Because they’ve already sucked the aquifers dry—and surprise, they’re not refilling. Iran’s water policy is basically looting the savings account and burning down the vault. What used to be underground reservoirs—nature’s emergency fund—is now either empty or, thanks to land subsidence, permanently damaged. Entire basins have collapsed like a Ponzi scheme in a sandstorm. You can’t store water in a sunken sponge.

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Let’s be clear: this isn’t just environmental collapse. It’s theft. It’s a crime scene. A slow-motion disaster that was warned1 about, predicted2, entirely preventable, and—most unforgivably—profitable.

…Read more: https://nikkowsar.substack.com/p/grand-theft-hydrology-how-irans-water

Yep, I’m sure dropping a truck load of climate cash into that situation would fix everything. Do I need a /sarc tag?