TEHRAN — The growing problems of the megacity of Tehran does not justify relocating it, councilor Ahmad Masjed-Jamei said on Saturday.

He made the remarks after a documentary named “the capital” was screened at Mehr news agency. The documentary was mainly focusing on the issues the capital, Tehran, is struggling with including water shortage, air pollution, land subsidence and traffic congestion to name a few.

The 14-episode documentary which was partly screened at the agency suggested the relocation of the capital in order to sort out some of the problems the city is beset with. 

The city is fraught with problems originating from unsustainable development of Tehran, its large and growing population, depletion of groundwater resources to satisfy the need of the dense crowd of people residing the metropolitan which itself has led to land subsidence, air pollution brought about by the numerous private cars, diesel engine vehicles, carbureted motorcycle, clunker buses and taxis. 

“Some 171 bird species used to inhabit Tehran which constitute about one third of the country’s bird species,” Mohammad Darvish, environmentalist and the former director of the Public Participation Office at the Department of Environment, said in the aforesaid documentary.

By cutting down the trees and removing the city’s vegetation the birds have left Tehran, Darvish regretted, adding, “Birds fertilize the soil and also can make the atmosphere peaceful for the human beings and now we have lost them.”
 
He went on to say that since the year 1956 Tehran has lost 70 percent of its vegetation. 

The city which is stretching over 700 square kilometers is only suitable for a population of 2 to 2.3 million, however, some 8.5 million people live in the capital. 

So, why is that so? The answer is simple: government provision of facilities are more concentrated in urban areas, and even more in the capital. This works like a magnet, the unemployed population opt to move to the capital in a hope to find a job and living a better life.  

Having said that, Mehdi Chamran, the former chairman of Tehran City Council, also emphasized on the fact that relocating the capital does not solve the problems. 

With the current policies relocating the capital would not solve the problem, it is only a matter of time for the new capital to become just like Tehran, a city suffering from some serious problems, Chamran noted.

“What we should do is to take measures to increase the livability of other cities in the country so that people won’t have to move to the capital,” he suggested. 

All ministries and organizations should try to find the reasons as to why people migrate to urban areas specially Tehran, making the capital expensive does not fix this problem, people in rural areas don’t have job so that 72 percent of the population in the country are currently living in urban areas, Chamran lamented. 

Walk the walk

Relocating the capital may be out of question, but we cannot pretend there is nothing wrong with the capital. It may not happen at once or tomorrow but one day the city will become unlivable and it would be too late to make a change. 

The officials seems to be having all the answers but nothing actually happens. They seem to be having plans for making the city more livable and developing smart cities but having things written down on a piece of paper and agreeing upon it does not mean that the city is protected against the harms. 

It’s time to do something and make a difference. Do not just talk the talk but walk the walk. 

MQ/MG