Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian cautioned on Friday that Tehran might face evacuation due to severe water shortages if rain doesn’t arrive by year-end.
“Should it remain dry, we must begin water rationing in Tehran from late November to early December,” Pezeshkian stated on state television.
“Even with rationing, if the dry spell continues, we could exhaust water supplies, necessitating Tehran’s evacuation.”
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The evacuation logistics for the capital remain uncertain.
The entirety of Iran is grappling with declining rainfall, but Tehran, a vast metropolis of over 10 million, is especially at risk.
On Sunday, Behzad Parsa, regional water company head, alerted media about only two weeks of water left in Tehran’s main reservoir.
Tasnim News Agency reported that annual precipitation reached a mere 152 millimeters, a 40% drop from the 57-year average.
Mohammad Reza Kavianpour of the Water Research Institute noted that several provinces saw a 50-80% drop in rainfall.
He mentioned that the capital’s dam storage at the start of the new water year in late September was about 250 million cubic meters, nearly half of the previous year’s 490 million.
“We must brace for a dire situation,” he warned, as per Tasnim.
Water levels in Tehran’s reservoirs have plummeted to decades-old lows, says Mohsen Ardakani, head of the Tehran provincial water company.
“In the past six months, residents have reduced their water use by 10%,” Ardakani shared on state TV.
“If this reaches 20%, it could stabilize water availability for one to two months until rains return,” he added.
Tehran’s winter typically brings rain and snow.
The drastic drop in rainfall and dam inflows has intensified the crisis, as Iran endures one of its worst droughts in years.
In response, several Tehran neighborhoods have faced water cuts recently, with outages common over the summer.
In July and August, public holidays were declared to save water and energy, with power cuts nearly daily amid an intense heatwave.
