Tehran City Council Member: The Soil of the Capital is No Longer Fertile

Mohammad Haqani, head of the Environment Committee of Tehran City Council, reported on the soil pollution in the capital of Iran and its lack of fertility. ISNA news agency reported on Tuesday that Mr. Haqani, in remarks on the occasion of World Soil Day on December 5, stated: "Tehran, in addition to lacking clean air, is also deprived of fertile soil." This official expressed regret that "with a focus on air pollution and water scarcity, the soil crisis in Tehran has been overlooked" and added that "soil pollution in Tehran is a very concerning issue." He identified the presence of harmful pollutants such as heavy metals in the environment, especially soil, as one of the consequences of "uncontrolled urban development and reckless interference with nature" and added: "Heavy metals such as lead, nickel, and chromium have entered the soil and plants and from there into the food chain of humans and animals." According to the head of the Environment Committee of Tehran City Council, these pollutants have destructive effects on living beings, which are "much more pronounced in humans." Mr. Haqani listed seven main sources of soil pollution in Tehran, including small and large polluting industries around Tehran, the presence of dilapidated oil and diesel pipelines and storage tanks, Tehran's oil refineries one and two, the Kahrizak waste disposal site, agricultural lands in southern Tehran, and acid rain, stating: "These pollutants have more destructive effects on humans than on living beings." This Tehran City Council official pointed out that an area of four to five thousand hectares of soil in southern Tehran has been contaminated with oil materials, causing a significant area to become uninhabited. He added that this refinery has contaminated not only the soil but also the water wells in the area with oil materials and their derivatives. Regarding the Kahrizak waste disposal site, Mohammad Haqani stated that "the soil has been contaminated up to 100 meters deep and the water wells in the area have also been contaminated within a four-kilometer radius." This is while, according to him, "the situation at the Kahrizak waste disposal site has improved significantly in the last two to three years." The remarks of the head of the Environment Committee of Tehran City Council come at a time when the newspaper Shahrvand, on Sunday, December 5, pointed out that the people of the capital have contracted "a rare respiratory disease," stating: "In a city that does not even have a coal mine, Tehranis have contracted anthracosis or black lung disease, which has only been reported among mine workers." Tehran, with a population of over 13 million, is considered one of the most polluted megacities in the world, and various governments have so far been unable to control and curb the human factors increasing air pollution in Tehran and other megacities in Iran. Earlier, on October 24, Narges Rouhani, a member of the Iranian Scientific Association for Environmental Assessment, announced that the gasoline distributed in Tehran is 100% carcinogenic. The government of Hassan Rouhani issued a resolution in November regarding reducing air pollution in megacities, which states that old vehicles in megacities will be fined 50,000 tomans, and the Iranian National Standards Organization has also been tasked with developing national standards or reference standards for equipment at technical inspection centers within three months.