Drinking water in Tehran could run dry in two weeks, Iranian official says

According to state media, Tehran’s capital’s main source of drinking water is in danger of running dry in two weeks as a result of a long-standing drought.

The director of Tehran’s water company, Behzad Parsa, was quoted as saying on Sunday by the IRNA news agency that the Amir Kabir Dam, one of five that provide drinking water to Tehran, “holds just 14 million cubic meters of water, which is eight percent of its capacity.”

He warned that it can only supply Tehran with water “for two weeks” at that time.

The drought in the nation’s worst for years has been made as a result. A local official declared last month that Tehran province’s rainfall was “nearly unprecedented for a century.”

The Alborz Mountains, a megacity of more than 10 million people, are nestled against the southern slopes of the frequently snow-capped Alborz Mountains, whose rivers flow into numerous reservoirs and have a height of 5,600 meters (18, 370 feet).

According to Parsa, there was a “100% drop in precipitation” in the Tehran region despite the fact that the Amir Kabir dam held back 86 million cubic meters of water a year ago.

The status of the other reservoirs in the system was not disclosed by Parsa.

Tehran’s population uses about three million cubic meters of water each day, according to Iranian media.

Supplies have reportedly been cut off to a number of neighbourhoods in recent days as a water-saving measure, and outages have been frequent this summer.

Two public holidays were made in July and August to conserve water and energy, with power outages almost daily as a result of a heat wave that saw temperatures in Tehran rise above 40 degrees (104 Fahrenheit) and reach temperatures of over 50 degrees (122F) in some places.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian remarked at the time that the water crisis is “more serious than what is being discussed today.”

Water shortages are a major issue in Iran, particularly in the country’s south’s arid provinces, with shortages attributed to mismanagement and overexploitation of underground resources as well as the growing effects of climate change.