Taps may run dry in this country, where the water crisis is so severe it can be seen from space

(CNN) — Rows of worshippers, some with their faces raised toward the sky, others with their heads bowed, prayed for rain at a mosque in Tehran earlier this month. Theirs is an increasingly desperate plea . The city is grappling with a water crisis so severe the Iranian president has suggested people may need to evacuate. The weeks tick by, still the rains don’t arrive.

There are fears water may run out completely in this vast, bustling city, whose metropolitan area is home to around 15 million people.

In a speech earlier this month, President Masoud Pezeshkian said water will be rationed if it does not rain in Tehran by December. If the lack of rain continues, residents “have to evacuate,” he said. Many experts say evacuation is unfeasible, but Pezeshkian’s rhetoric reflects the ser