Tehran faces acute water scarcity and energy crisis; mulls rationing, evacuation

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that the capital Tehran is facing an impending acute and unprecedented water and energy crisis, which threaten drinking water supply and electricity generation, said reports on Friday. Tehran’s dam reservoirs have fallen to their lowest level in 60 years, he revealed. “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,” 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.

Tehran has entered its sixth consecutive year of drought, with some dams at less than 10% of capacity.

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

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

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Tehran, a city of about 9.1 million residents, lies in a province of roughly 14.5 million people and 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 describe the water shortage as “unprecedented.”

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Iran’s energy system is highly dependent on hydropower and fossil fuels, while solar and wind are only a small fraction of total capacity. Sanctions, investor scepticism and decades of underinvestment have stalled diversification efforts.

Critics also point out faulty policies that placed water-hungry industries like steel, cement and petrochemicals in the country’s driest regions.

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“Wrong policies diverted rivers to inland factories that should have been built on the coast,” said lawmaker Reza Sepahvand.

Agriculture still consumes about 80% of Iran’s freshwater, much of it through inefficient irrigation for thirsty crops in arid areas.

Outdated practices are draining aquifers and worsening power outages as pumping systems fail.