‘Tehran faces water rationing and evacuations if it doesn’t rain soon’

Tehran: Iran’s president has warned that the capital is facing an unprecedented water and energy crisis as reservoirs have plunged to historic lows, threatening supplies of drinking water and electricity generation, it was reported on Friday.

“If it doesn’t rain in Tehran by late November, we’ll have to ration water. And if it still doesn’t rain, we’ll have to evacuate Tehran,” President Masoud Pezeshkian was cited as saying on Thursday by the SNN.ir semi-official news agency.

Pezeshkian described the situation as “extremely critical,” citing reports that Tehran’s dam reservoirs have fallen to their lowest level in 60 years.

The city has entered its sixth consecutive year of drought, with some dams at less than 10 per cent of capacity.

Officials say that in the east of Tehran, the Latyan Dam — one of five key reservoirs — is only about 9 per cent full.

“Latyan’s water storage is just nine million cubic metres,” Deputy Energy Minister Mohammad Javanbakht said recently, calling the situation “critical.”

Tehran, a sprawling city of about 9.1 million residents located within a province of roughly 14.5 million people, relies heavily on hydropower. But as rivers and wetlands have dried up, power output has plummeted, forcing some plants offline for lack of cooling water. Officials have described the water shortage as “unprecedented.”

Iran’s energy system remains highly dependent on hydropower and fossil fuels, while solar and wind together make up only a small share of total capacity.