Iran battles unprecedented drought as water cuts planned for capital

TEHRAN

Water drips from a tap in Mellat Park, as the Iran faces sever water shortages, in Tehran.

Iran has worked on plans to cut off water supplies periodically to Tehran's 10-million-strong population as it battles its worst drought in many decades both in its capital and major cities.

Rainfall in the capital has this year been at its lowest level in a century, local officials say, and half of Iran's provinces have not seen a drop fall in months.

Water levels at the dam reservoirs supplying Iran's northeastern city of Mashhad also plunged below three percent.

Now, to save water, the government is planning water cuts in Tehran, and several local news outlets have already reported pipes running dry overnight in some areas.

"This will help avoid waste even though it may cause inconvenience," Iran's Energy Minister Abbas Ali Abadi said on state television.

In a speech broadcast last week, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that Tehran might have to be evacuated if no rain falls before the end of the year.

The drought reached such an extreme level that some Iranians began believing in conspiracy theories claiming that neighboring countries are “stealing” Iran’s rain clouds and redirecting them.

The head of Iran’s atmospheric water technologies tried to refute these ideas. “However, since human knowledge is constantly advancing, we cannot rule out every possibility,” he said.

With no sign of relief, certain officials urged people to pray for rain. Mehdi Chamran, the head of the Tehran City Council, noted, “In the past, people would go out to the desert to pray for rain. Alongside all other measures, we should not neglect this either.”

Hassan Hosseini, the deputy Iran's second-largest city Mashhad, also said that night-time water cuts were being considered to address the water shortage.

And over the summer on July and August, two public holidays were declared in Tehran to save water and energy, at a time when power outages were almost daily during the intense heatwave.

Local papers slammed what they described as the politicization of environmental decision-making for the water crisis.

The reformist Etemad newspaper cited the appointment of "unqualified managers... in key institutions" as being the main cause of the crisis.

Shargh, another reformist daily, said that "climate is sacrificed for the sake of politics.”