Iran about to face massive crisis as drinking water could dry up
Iran could face massive crisis as water dries up in Tehran: state media
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- Tehran’s main reservoir, the Amir Kabir dam, is at 8% capacity, with officials warning it can only supply the city for two more weeks.
- The emergency is driven by a historic drought, with authorities reporting a "100 percent drop in precipitation" in the Tehran region compared to the preceding year.
Iran’s capital city Tehran, home to more than 10 million people, is facing an acute water emergency after a senior Iranian official warned that the city’s primary reservoir could run completely dry within two weeks, state media reported Sunday.
Behzad Parsa, the director of Tehran's water company, stated that the immediate crisis centers on the Amir Kabir dam, one of five reservoirs crucial to the capital’s drinking water supply.
“The Amir Kabir dam holds just 14 million cubic meters of water, which is eight percent of its capacity,” Parsa was quoted as saying by the IRNA news agency.
He added that at current levels, the dam can only continue to supply Tehran with water "for two weeks". The capital’s immense demand is estimated at around three million cubic meters of water daily.
Low water levels
The severe depletion marks a catastrophic drop from one year ago, when the dam held 86 million cubic meters of water.
Authorities attributed the unprecedented shortage to a historic drought, reporting a "100 percent drop in precipitation" in the Tehran region compared to the preceding year.
A local official last month described the level of rainfall in Tehran province as "nearly without precedent for a century".
As the water crisis converged with soaring temperatures that exceeded 40°C in Tehran, the government has already implemented drastic conservation measures.
Supply cuts and rationing have been frequent this summer, with water cut off to several neighborhoods in recent days. Furthermore, two public holidays were declared in July and August specifically to conserve water and energy, as power cuts became an almost daily occurrence.
The severity of the situation was previously underscored by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who warned the public that the crisis was "far more serious than what is being publicly discussed today".
Experts note that while the drought is the immediate trigger, the crisis is exacerbated by decades of systemic mismanagement, including severe over-extraction of groundwater and significant leakage, estimated to be around 30%, in aging urban water networks.
