Iran’s capital Tehran could be weeks away from “day zero,” experts say — the day when taps run dry for large parts of the city — as the country suffers a severe water crisis. Key reservoirs are shrinking, authorities are scrambling to reduce water consumption and residents are desperately trying to conserve it to stave off catastrophe,
CNN reports.
“If we do not make urgent decisions today, we will face a situation in the future that cannot be solved,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said at a cabinet meeting Monday.
Water is inherently short in supply in this arid nation. The difference is this crisis is hitting the capital, said Kaveh Madani, director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
Tehran, home to around 10 million people, could run out of water altogether if consumption levels are not reduced, experts fear. “We are talking about a possible day zero within weeks,” said Madani, who previously served as the deputy head of Iran’s Department of Environment.
The roots of the crisis lie in a tangle of factors including what engineers describe as decades of poor water management and an increasing imbalance between supply and demand.
It’s all compounded by climate change.
Iran is experiencing one of its worst droughts on record, and its fifth consecutive year of drought. The country is also baking under brutal heat. Temperatures spiked above 122 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of the country this month, according to climatologist and weather historian Maximiliano Herrera. “Iran seems almost perennially in a record-heat status,” he told CNN.
In response to the crisis, authorities have reduced water pressure in Tehran by almost half, affecting around 80% of households, the governor of Tehran Province Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian said Monday.
For people living in tall apartment buildings, that can mean no water supply at all. One man who lives on the 14th floor in Tehran says his taps often run dry.
Water is being delivered to the capital by tankers, and residents who can afford it are rushing to install storage tanks, Madani said. “We have never had a situation like this… this is new to Tehran.”
