43% of Houses in Iran Built Without Skeletal Structures

Ten million out of 23 million residential buildings in Iran do not have skeletal frames, which accommodate between 30-35 million people, says the head of Engineering Seismology Department at Road, Housing and Urban Development Research Center. 
“This means their dwellings lack resilience needed in the face of flooding and strong earthquakes. As you see, a large number of cities are struggling with inundations after heavy rains and even agricultural plains and urban centers are wrestling with an unprecedented array of challenges,” Ali Beitollahi was also quoted as saying by IRNA. 
“From the perspective of flood risk management and engineering, river engineering and flood control considerations have been neglected, due to which flooding leads to wide-scale erosion of fertile soil as well as environmental, economic and social losses.” 
Beitollahi believes that sustainable development is synonymous with development of infrastructural assets that would advance in line with social, economic and cultural development. 
“They are related to each other. You can’t develop cities without considering their carrying capacity [the maximum number, density, or population mass that a specific area can support sustainably.] When it comes to devising urban development initiatives as well as economic, industrial plans, you need to have a macro-sustainable-development perspective to strengthen cities’ resilience to disasters such as earthquakes and floods,” he said.