Tehran could run out of drinking water in two weeks, official warns
Tehran could run out of drinking water within two weeks, a senior Iranian official warned, as a historic drought grips the country and drastically depletes reservoirs supplying the capital.
Behzad Parsa, director of Tehran’s water company, said the Amir Kabir Dam — one of five that supply the megacity — currently holds just 14 million cubic metres of water, only eight percent of its capacity, News.Az reports, citing Al Jazeera.
“At this level, it can only continue to supply water for two weeks,” Parsa cautioned.
The warning comes amid Iran’s worst drought in decades. Officials say rainfall in Tehran province has been “nearly without precedent for a century.” Last year, the Amir Kabir Dam held back 86 million cubic metres of water, but this year has seen what Parsa described as a “100 percent drop in precipitation.”
Tehran, home to over 10 million people, relies on rivers descending from the Alborz Mountains to fill its reservoirs. However, water shortages have intensified, with several neighbourhoods already experiencing supply cuts. In recent months, authorities declared public holidays to conserve water and energy amid a summer heatwave that pushed temperatures above 40°C in Tehran and beyond 50°C in southern regions.
President Masoud Pezeshkian previously warned that “the water crisis is more serious than what is being discussed today.” Experts have attributed Iran’s worsening water scarcity to decades of mismanagement, overuse of groundwater, and the growing impact of climate change.
The crisis mirrors similar conditions in neighbouring Iraq, which is suffering its driest year since 1993, as water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers have fallen by up to 27% due to poor rainfall and upstream restrictions.
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