By Sanam Mahoozi
LONDON, March 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – As Iranians scrubbed their homes and hosed their gardens ahead of Persian New Year celebrations, they were told to slash their water use if the country was to avoid total “water bankruptcy”.
Water levels in dams around the capital have plunged and water rationing and power cuts are forecast for the summer as the rain-starved country wilts under a severe drought.
Lakes are disappearing, farmers are struggling and huge sinkholes have appeared in cities as water tables decline.
Students worry about washing, kitchen taps run dry and showers are deemed a luxury.
Large Areas of Iran Suffer Severe Drought; Human Lives At Risk
The managing director of Tehran’s Water and Sewage Department said last week that reserves in key dams supplying nearly all the city’s drinking water have dropped to their lowest levels on record, just 5% of capacity.
Ahead of New Year festivities starting on March 20, Mohsen Ardakani urged residents to cut water usage by at least 20%.
“This is no longer a choice or an option — it’s a necessity to help get us through the difficult times,” he said.
Local media have broadcast images of a near-empty Amir Kabir dam (6% full) and the Latian dam (10% full) in the Alborz mountains north of Tehran. Rainfall in the capital is down 17% from last year, and stands 42% below the long-term average.
“They are saying on TV that there may not be any water left for us tomorrow – I go to bed every night worrying about what this situation is doing to the mental and physical health of my loved ones,” said a 43-year-old clothing designer from Tehran, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of official reprisal.
“My father is afraid to take showers and my mother is afraid to drink water with the medicine she needs for her kidney problem. They say they want to save the water for the young generation to use and survive,” she said.
Kaveh Madani, director of the U.N. University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health (UNU-INWEH) and a former deputy head of Iran‘s Department of Environment, said the country was experiencing “water bankruptcy”.
“If water resources are viewed as assets – surface water as a checking account and groundwater as savings – Iran has depleted its reserves, leaving the public with a situation equal to an overdrawn bank account,” said Madani.
“Now it’s spreading to energy and other parts of the economy,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, referring to the nation’s electricity, natural gas and petroleum shortages.
ANALYSIS: Much of Iran Is Threatened By Drought and Water Scarcity
FARMERS SUFFER
At a Tehran Council meeting last week, President Masoud Pezeshkian said rapid urban expansion made it impossible to sustain current consumption levels for the 19 million people who live in the capital and surrounding areas.
“Scientists and experts need to sit down together and solve the city’s water problems,” Pezeshkian said.
According to Iran‘s National Water Information and Data Office, water flow to dam reservoirs across the country is down 28% from last year. The storage levels of some key dams in 10 provinces have dropped to less than 15% of capacity.
This includes reservoirs near Isfahan, Zanjan, Fars and Kerman provinces, where summer temperatures soar above 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), triggering high demand for cooling systems and water for daily chores.
Scientists say the water shortages are mainly caused by decades of mismanagement, inefficient agricultural practices, and a growing population – but have also been exacerbated by rising temperatures due to climate change.
Mohsen Mesgaran, assistant professor of plant sciences at UC Davis in California, said agriculture, which accounts for 90% of Iran‘s water use, is the main driver of the current crisis.
“While it’s understandable given that Iran receives only about one fourth of the global average precipitation, agricultural productivity is still remarkably low relative to this limited rainfall,” he said.
In the East Azerbaijan province in northwest Iran, a 36-year-old farmer said water shortages were driving fellow farmers out of the area around Lake Urmia, once the largest salt-water lake in the Middle East and now a vast desert.
“Our beloved rivers and lakes have completely dried up. So have our wells and groundwater,” said the farmer from Bonab village, who did not want to give his name for fear of reprisal.
“All the government does is dig deeper wells. I don’t know who we need to tell our pain and sorrow to any more.”
More than 4 million people work in farming, which accounts for around 20% of total employment in an economy already under pressure from U.S. sanctions.
“It is extremely difficult to reduce agricultural activity unless the government can provide alternative employment opportunities for these farmers,” said Mesgaran.
LAND SUBSIDING
Excessive extraction and depletion of groundwater for farming have caused significant land subsidence with cracks and sinkholes appearing in cities, sometimes swallowing whole cars.
SPECIAL REPORT – He Returned to Iran to Help Save Its Environment. He Had to Flee.
In Tehran, the rate of land subsidence is 31 cm a year.
In industrial cities such as Isfahan, Khashan and Yazd, any land that lies under highways and airports now risks collapsing.
A 25-year-old university student majoring in psychology in the south-central city of Shiraz, described how water shortages were disrupting her most basic of routines.
“It’s getting very hard to do the simplest thing like washing my face and my body – sometimes I have to wait hours for the water to turn back on,” said the student, who did not want to give her name for fear of official reprisals.
“I get especially anxious during my period when I need more water for personal hygiene. When there are water cuts, I sometimes skip university class to avoid the stress of worrying about looking clean,” she said.
