Tehran’s Residents Are Panicking as Taps Run Dry

Tehran’s Residents Are Panicking as Taps Run Dry

Years of drought and neglect have left the city nearly unsustainable.

Water runs low at the Latyan Dam, which feeds Tehran, on May 8. November 11, 2025, 3:50 PM Comment icon View Comments ( )

In recent days, prolonged water cuts across Tehran have created widespread panic among the Iranian capital’s 10 million residents. Last week, after years of drought and reduced rainfall and snowfall, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that Tehran’s residents would have to ration water—and eventually evacuate the capital—if there was no rain by late November. They’ve had years of warning, but Iran’s rulers have done nothing to resolve an increasingly existential water crisis.

A few experts have been warning about the impending d