Science at UM [S05-ep13]: Iran on a Drought
This week on "Science at UM," Séverin Pistre, a researcher at Hydrosciences Montpellier , talks to us about the looming water crisis in Iran caused by mismanagement by the mullahs’ regime. Nathan Roure invites you to the 2026 edition of the “My Thesis in 180 Seconds” competition. A program broadcast every Wednesday on Divergence.
In 2022, the Iranian people took to the streets chanting “Women, life, freedom.” A slogan that could very soon become “Women, life, freedom, and water,” given how scarce this resource is becoming in this Gulf nation. It is a situation that scientists are trying to warn the public about, but it is difficult at present to make their voices heard when the sound of bombs drowns out everything else.
The problem, however, is not a new one; it dates back to the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, when the mullahs’ regime enshrined the goal of national food self-sufficiency in the Constitution. This goal—which the ministry, renamed the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad, has never achieved—has come at the cost of the wasteful management of groundwater reserves.
Iran is not an isolated case; it is estimated that 60% of the world’s population lives in regions expected to face water shortages and a decline in surface water availability by 2050, but the intensity of the war is once again shining a spotlight on these geostrategic issues, which are particularly acute in the Persian Gulf.
In Montpellier, Séverin Pistre, a hydrologist at Hydrosciences Montpellier, recently reminded us of this in an interview with the newspaper *Le Point* on March 15. In it, he discusses the water crisis as well as the difficulty of contacting students currently in Iran and the exile of his colleague Roohollah Noori, with whom he published an article in *Nature Communications* in 2023 titled The Decline of Groundwater Recharge in Iran.
At the end of the program, Nathan Roure from the UM Communications Department invites you to the local finals of the MT 180 competition, which will take place on April 2 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in Nîmes.
At UM Science, you’ve got the program—let’s get started!
Co-production: Divergence FM / University of Montpellier
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Lucie Lecherbonnier / Aline Périault
Production: Alice Rollet
Tune in to the show “A l’UM la science” on Divergence FM 93.9
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