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Taps run dry as water crisis forces Iran to consider evacuating its capital

A drastic new message adorns the walls of the Iranian capital, usually reserved for war heroes and weapons.

“There is a water shortage!” reads the government poster's slogan, inside a water container that is nearly empty. “It’s fall and there is still no rain.”

That’s not news to Erfan Ensani, 39, who returned home from a long day working in the textile section of the city’s central bazaar last week to find his taps running dry.

Iran is facing its worst water crisis in decades. With no end in sight and authorities warning they may even have to evacuate the capital of 10 million people, residents like Ensani are scrambling to respond.

“We didn’t have water for three days. The pressure was so low that nothing came out,” Ensani, who, like many residents, works two jobs to make ends meet, told NBC News in a recent interview in Tehran.

“The water company says we should buy pumps to solve the problem and also get a storage tank to keep some water. But that’s expensive, especially now when the economy is bad,” Ensani said.

Everyone in his building is fed up, Ensani said, with some neighbors even traveling across the city to their relatives’ houses just to take a shower. Families with kids have an even more difficult time. “These are extra costs that people just can’t handle right now,” Ensani said.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said two weeks ago that extreme measures may need to be taken if there is no rain by late November.

“Even if we ration, if it doesn’t rain again, then we won’t have water at all,” he said, according to a video posted on the website of the semiofficial Tabnak news agency.

“They’ll have to evacuate Tehran.”
'A state of failure'

Tehran is now in its sixth year of drought, while temperatures that exceeded 122 degrees Fahrenheit over the summer led to power outages and an enforced public holiday.

The reservoirs that the capital depends on for water are now at only 5% of their reserve capacity, Mohsen Ardakani, the head of the Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Company, said two weeks ago, according to the semiofficial Mehr News Agency.

Iran’s 12-day war with Israel last summer also damaged water infrastructure, which has exacerbated the problem, according to Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi, who warned two weeks ago that the government may have to resort to cutting water off completely on some nights to deal with the crisis.

The semiofficial Tasnim News Agency reported two weeks ago that water restrictions in Tehran had already begun.

Aliabadi said this week that Iran was using cloud-seeding technology in the hope of boosting rainfall, though it requires existing clouds to work.

A cloud-seeding flight was conducted in the Lake Urmia basin on Saturday, Mohammadmahdi Javadianzadeh, Head of the Organization for Development of Atmospheric Water Technologies, said.
A combination picture shows satellite views of variations in the water level of the Latian Dam, in Lavasan.

Part of the reason the Iranian government is so concerned is that a water crisis can build into a political grievance and fuel unrest.

Videos posted on social media and verified by NBC News showed students protesting water shortages at Tehran’s Al-Zahra University last weekend.

The issue has sometimes led to violence and arrests in the southwestern Khuzestan province, home to a large Arab minority that has long complained of neglect by the central government.

This time, many Iranians blame the state.

“The authorities have known about this problem for years, but nothing has been done,” Sadegh Razavi, a Tehran restaurant owner, said. “In a country as rich in resources as ours, it’s sad that we have no electricity in the summer and now a water crisis, too.”

The prolonged drought along with years of overconsumption, an inefficient agricultural sector and mismanagement — including decades building mega-dams of questionable utility — have led to the problem, analysts say.

“I don’t call it a crisis anymore. This is a state of failure. That’s why for years I’ve referred to it as water bankruptcy,” said Kaveh Madani, the director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.

“A crisis is a state that you can mitigate, you can go back to normal at some point if you put forces together. But the damages we are seeing to the ecosystem, to the nature and even to many parts of the economy and infrastructure are irreversible.”

A 'no-brainer' crisis

The current situation was not a surprise to researchers based in North America who studied Iran’s water supply and the strains on it.

“It was a no-brainer,” said Ali Nazemi, an associate professor at Concordia University in Montreal.

In a 2021 study in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports, Nazemi and other researchers warned that the Islamic Republic was overdrafting groundwater in nearly four-fifths of the landscape, which was causing Iran’s land to sink, its soil to grow more salty and its salt lakes to disappear.

The researchers, who dedicated the paper “to the people of Iran,” warned that a crisis was brewing that had the potential for “irreversible impacts on land and environment, threatening country’s water, food, socio-economic security.”

The researchers used publicly available data from Iran’s Ministry of Energy to assess the groundwater depletion. “After this paper was published, they took the data sets out of public access,” Nazemi said.

Amir AghaKouchak, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine, said climate change has exacerbated the problem, but the biggest issue is how water use is governed.

“This narrative of climate change is responsible, to be honest, is not really accurate,” AghaKouchak said, adding that Iran has weathered drought throughout its history. “The problem is mismanagement and systemic corruption in the system that basically allows powerful organizations to even build dams or diversion tunnels without even getting permits.”

Nazemi said that dynamic is worsened by inefficient irrigation methods and aging urban water infrastructure that leaks.

There have been early warning signs.

Lake Urmia, which was once the sixth largest salt lake in the world, is desiccated and causing dust storms. Zayandeh Rud, the largest river in Iran’s central plateau, is no longer a permanent river.

But there is no quick fix to the problem, and government officials have begun proposing more drastic solutions.

Aliabadi, the energy minister, warned Wednesday that overconsumption of water will be punished, noting that he had a plan to cut electricity to households still filling their swimming pools.

“All the options are related to emergency management only,” Madani, of the United Nations University, said.

He added: “The most effective one is reduce consumption by the citizens. To get there, you need to earn their trust. You need to increase transparency in your system. Have a proper communication channel. This is very hard for a country that has gone through a war recently.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/iran-water-crisis-taps-run-dry-tehran-evacuation-looms-rcna243430

There was rain yesterday at last, but not in Tehran

Old news!

There's rainfall in Iran now.
Despite American weather tampering over Iran, God sent down rain to Iran.
Zionists jubilation was short-lived.
Everything about Zionists is short-lived.

God of vegeance. we told them to embrace peace.

Israel is using ancient alien technology that Moses use to cause drought in Egypt.

We read about the 7 plagues of Egypt
Now we are witnessing the 7 plagues of Iran

Water shortage is no joke ooo

They prefer to invest their resources in developing weapons while neglecting basic things like water for their citizens.

If there is anything Nigerian arewa Muslims can do to help, they are ever willing to.

Blame Israel. Israel stole their water.

Is this karma ? for attacking Israel earlier. Fear God.

Dey can build NK but they don't have sense to build wat is good for humanity

Nigerians do not know what God has done for them with abundant resources.

The issue is leadership.

Imagine with the water bodies surrounding us, with adequate rainfall at all times, and with abundant water underground, portable water is still a mirage in 2025 in most places, except you dig your own well or sink a bore hole.

LibertyRep:
Nigerians do not know what God has done for them with abundant resources.

The issue is leadership.

Imagine with the water bodies surrounding us, with adequate rainfall at all times, and with abundant water underground, portable water is still a mirage in 2025 in most places, except you dig your own well or sink a bore hole.

God? Which of them please?

Honestly, every country has something in different degrees to deal with.

Insecurity is our own night mare.

May God help all of us.

Iran has ran out of Hydrogeologist. Sorry, Iran refused to acknowledge that IDF killed ALL Hydogeologist in Iran and destroyed their public water system during the 12 days war. I thought some idiots said Tehran was untouched during the war.

Wait,

You mean our powerful Iran that we Nigerian palestinians are depending on to defeat Israel and America combined?

Abi we bin dey scam ourselves ni?

BlackViper:
Taps run dry as water crisis forces Iran to consider evacuating its capital


https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/iran-water-crisis-taps-run-dry-tehran-evacuation-looms-rcna243430

Guess who could have been of help the most at this trying times to them?
Isn't this life funny.

Allsmilez999:
God? Which of them please?

Those living off natural supplies are facing challenges of having potable water... clean and drinkable.

verview



+5
Yes, Israel offered to help Iran with its water supply, particularly in 2018 and more recently in 2025, by providing water management expertise and technology. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly stated this, highlighting Israel's success in overcoming water scarcity and offering assistance to the Iranian people if the current regime were to change. Iran's president has dismissed these offers, as shown

Many people are not aware of this that Isreal wanted to assist lran on her water supply,few years ago.Isreal clearly wants a vibrant and stable middle east but so far they all refuse to unclench their fists.They want sharia and jihad and nothing more, just like the north of Nigeria and their sympathizers.Israel is by far,the only country in that region that never runs dry of a steady supply of water.

There is always a repercussion when you attack God's people.

Lacking water but building nukes. They claim the uranium are for energy but have no water to drink talk less of water for cooling nuclear reactors.

In a 2021 study in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports, Nazemi and other researchers warned that the Islamic Republic was overdrafting groundwater in nearly four-fifths of the landscape, which was causing Iran’s land to sink, its soil to grow more salty and its salt lakes to disappear.

The ecosystem is always shutting down around terrorists thus prompting the intervention of the salt of the earth.

To be honest with you guys, the mullahs in Tehran will not look for a way to work this out, they rather did use their money/resources to make/buy missiles and drones.

I keep thinking why countries don't think of exporting water , its an untapped gold mine.

Allsmilez999:
If there is anything Nigerian arewa Muslims can do to help, they are ever willing to.

😂😂😂😂

Can't stop laughing..no b lie

which day news be this again? Iran wey rain don fall even scatter things self. Nairaland and late news.

The next big business is finding solutions to global issues such as drought, insecurity, famine and diseases.

motayoayinde:
Old news!

There's rainfall in Iran now.
Despite American weather tampering over Iran, God sent down rain to Iran.
Zionists jubilation was short-lived.
Everything about Zionists is short-lived.

People who own the country are saying there is a water shortage.

You who don't know where it is on the map is aying they are lying.

If this had happened in Nigeria...some prophets of doom on this platform will be having a field day blasting their betters..

Read the article. The rainfall is by cloud-seeding which is artificially created rain

motayoayinde:
Old news!

There's rainfall in Iran now.
Despite American weather tampering over Iran, God sent down rain to Iran.
Zionists jubilation was short-lived.
Everything about Zionists is short-lived.

When I said it early this year that those who fight Israel should be prepared for the consequences some people mentioned me that nothing will happen. That the rain has fallen in some areas does not mean they have not felt an harsh impact of something unexplainable

Meanwhile Islamic Clerics are blaming the water shortage crisis in Iran on Iranian woman not following Islamic Hijab Laws.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1EaVMMJS2U/

Let the old man continue to use Iran's resources to dig mountains up and down to bury Uranium for nuclear weapons.