Taps could run dry in drought

Decades of mismanagement and environmental exploitation, and an unprecedented drought have left Iran teetering on the edge of a water crisis.

The reservoirs are nearly empty following record-low rainfall , and officials are “pleading with citizens to conserve water”, said the BBC . The 10 million inhabitants of Tehran are “facing the real possibility of their taps running dry ”. Authorities warned this week that the five main dams supplying the capital were at “critical levels”.

With no rain on the horizon, the president has warned that citizens might have to start rationing water. “If rationing doesn’t work,” said Masoud Pezeshkian , “we may have to evacuate Tehran.”

A crisis ‘decades in the making’

The crisis has been “ decades in the making ”, said the BBC. Ayatollah Ali