Tehran is facing such a severe water crisis that its 15 million residents may be forced to relocate, Iranian media reported yesterday, citing the country’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian.
“The situation is serious and Tehran is almost out of water,” Pezeshkian was quoted as saying.
Levels have dropped below 10 per cent in seven reservoirs in the state, two dams have completely dried up, and 80pc of reservoirs are almost completely empty.
Climate experts have said that normal water supplies will not be possible for another two months until rain stabilises the situation.
The unprecedented move comes as temperatures across Iran have climbed well above seasonal averages, with Tehran reaching approximately 40C on Sunday, placing enormous strain on the country’s deteriorating power grid and water supply systems.
Pezeshkian said that several years of drought are the reason for the current crisis, but also past government policies, which, according to him, ignored this crisis.
Government offices and schools will continue to be closed until tomorrow as a result of the crisis. Many factories have closed, too.
Critics accuse the central government and provincial administrations of mismanagement.
Many Tehran residents have already left the capital for the northern provinces on the Caspian Sea, which do not have problems with supplies.
Pezeshkian delivered a stark warning during a cabinet meeting on the same day, citing an Energy Ministry report that revealed the crisis was more severe than publicly acknowledged.
“The water crisis is more serious than what is being discussed today, and if we do not take urgent action now, we will face a situation in the future for which no remedy can be found,” Pezeshkian was quoted as saying by state media. “In the water sector, beyond management and planning, we also need to address excessive consumption.”
Last week, Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi issued an alarming forecast, warning that the country’s critical reservoirs could run completely dry within weeks. The minister revealed that the Islamic Republic is actively negotiating with neighbouring countries to import water, though the shortage has already strained Iran’s regional relationships.
According to the World Resources Institute, Iran ranks as the 14th-highest country globally for baseline water stress, with commentators increasingly discussing a potential “day zero” when water supplies could be completely exhausted.
According to an academic researcher, Iran’s aggressive expansion of dam construction has worsened the country’s water crisis instead of alleviating it. Between 2012 and 2018, the number of dams in Iran more than doubled, from 316 to 647, according to him, and many were erected without proper environmental evaluations and often driven by political or military agendas.
Roughly 25 years ago, the United Nations warned in a report of a looming water shortage and severe drought in Iran in the coming decades – at a time when the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was receiving massive budgets to construct more than 60 dams for hydroelectric power, and Iranian authorities were pushing for ‘self-sufficiency’ in agricultural production, especially grains.
The Islamic Republic’s disregard for repeated warnings from international bodies and domestic experts led to a sixfold increase in hydroelectric capacity since the year 2000, reaching 12.5 gigawatts. Yet, due to the lack of water in the reservoirs, only one-third of this capacity is operational.
In agriculture – which consumes 90 per cent of the country’s 100 billion cubic meters of annual water use – Iran achieved only several years of wheat self-sufficiency. Today, one-third of Iran’s imports – worth $17 billion annually – consists of agricultural products, with grains topping the list.
Drought is undoubtedly one of the primary factors behind Iran’s water crisis. However, poor water resource management is among the most critical underlying causes. Another key issue is the 80bn cubic metres of water consumed annually in agriculture through inefficient traditional irrigation. Additionally, overexploitation of groundwater is a major concern.
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