Tehran Lacks Adequate Land to House Quake-Stricken Residence
Speaking in the first meeting of the committee to mitigate natural disaster damage in Tehran Province, he added that six years ago over 100 locations were allocated to house earthquake-stricken people, but, now many of these have vanished'.
He also said that a letter has been sent to the Minister of Science, Research and Technology and to the Chancellor of the Islamic Azad University to incorporate courses on ways to reduce the effects of natural disasters in the curriculum.
Last week, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Hassan Malek Madani said that the city's problems mostly have national and global dimensions and it is not practical to tackle them without the close cooperation of macro policy-making institutions.
In a letter to Majlis Speaker Mahdi Karrubi, in response to his call for investigating the performance of Tehran Municipality, Malek Madani underlined that the management system of major world capitals are planned and scrutinized by legislative bodies.
He said, "under ideal conditions, the capacity of Tehran's management and service infrastructure to provide housing can meet the needs of three million residents. In a controllable situation, it can provide for five million citizens while in the brink of a crisis, the figure is eight million." Currently the resources of the city is strained with a population of 12 million and if proper management is not utilized, even the most costly and efficient service facilities would fail to provide the minimum civic amenities for Tehran residents, he added.
He noted that the risk of earthquakes measuring six degrees on the Richter scale is forecast for Tehran in the next decade. Given the unfavorable urban structures, the main link roads as well as gas, electricity and water networks, he pointed out that major steps have to be taken in urban management and planning to confront such a catastrophe.