On Thursday, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian went on the record to announce that the country “no longer has a choice,” and must move its capital city to another location. While a number of countries have moved their administrative capitals for various reasons in recent decades, a forced transfer to a totally different city to avert a water crisis is unprecedented in modern history. As the Global Water Forum noted in a 2022 report, the low-income urban poor are bearing the brunt of the current water crisis. If Iranian authorities do move the nation’s capital, it will likely be a years-long endeavor — with any relief from lower water consumption coming far too late. More on Iran: As War Descends on Iran, People Have Discovered Some Wild Old Posts on Ayatollah Khamenei’s Twitter Account