What made Iran water-bankrupt? (Kaveh Madani, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University)

The western media blame Iran's water problems on droughts, climate change and sanctions. In this online seminar, hosted by the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, Kaveh Madani overviews the complexity of water problems in Iran. He argues that overlooking the complexities within Iran's water and political systems results in inaccurate and false problem descriptions and narratives that don't reflect the reality of the problems in the ground. He believes that the solutions developed based on reductionist thinking, will lead to wrong or ineffective solutions that can further exacerbate the current problems.

Dr. Kaveh Madani is an environmental researcher and educator, working at the interface of science, policy, and society. He is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and a Visiting Fellow at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University. He has previously served as the Deputy Head of Iran’s Department of Environment, Vice President of the UN Environment Assembly Bureau, and Chief of Iran’s Department of Environment’s International Affairs and Conventions Center.He is an expert in developing mathematical, economic and systems analysis models for complex problems involving water, energy, food, climate and environment to derive policy and governance insights.

More about the speaker: https://www.kavehmadani.com/about