At the meeting of the National Council of Provinces on Thursday, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani called for immediate attention to major issues afflicting people living in the rural areas. “Due to the consistent influx from rural to urban areas, the rural and pastoral population of the country has declined to 30%, while the urban population constitutes 70% of the national demographic,” he said, ILNA reported. The major problem driving the rural population to cities, he said, is no longer basic infrastructure like electricity, water, or healthcare services, but lack of a sustainable cycle of economic production. However, most of them are eventually forced to reside in unofficial settlements in dire circumstances. Larijani stressed that the government must undertake systematic studies “of the country’s climatic shifts to make optimum use of its resources, and create better economic opportunities for all sections of the population.”
