Iran’s average urbanization rate has reached 73 percent, said Mohammad Pejman, the deputy minister of roads and urban development to IRNA on Wednesday. Warning about the effects of economic, social, and environmental problems, the official stated that the government should carve out a refined macroeconomic policy to counter the ever-increasing tendency towards urbanization, which causes strain on existing urban districts. As IRNA previously reported, Mohammad Mirzaei, the head of Iran’s Society of Demographics, regarded the country’s rapid urbanizing population as the main culprit for the water shortage in Iran and called for greater attention to natural resources when planning new urban areas. Iran’s population has more than doubled in the last 30 years, with a majority of people now living in cities. The population growth has resulted in an increase in energy and water consumption, he said. Mirzaei noted that air pollution and water shortages are the result of population explosion and migration to big cities, adding, “Iran is now facing a severe water crisis, but it could worsen in the next two decades.”
