TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Rain fell for the first time in months in Iran’s capital Wednesday, providing a brief respite for the arid Islamic Republic, which is suffering its driest autumn in more than half a century.
The drought affecting Iran has seen its president warn the country it may need to move its government from Tehran by the end of December if there is no significant rainfall to recharge the dams around the capital. Meteorologists have described this autumn as the country’s driest in 50 years – even before the 1979 Islamic Revolution – further straining a system that wastes large amounts of water inefficiently on agriculture.
The water crisis has even become a political issue in the country, especially since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly offered his country’s aid to Iran, a nation against which it launched a 12-day war in June. Water shortages have also sparked localized protests in the past, something Iran has tried to avoid as its economy struggles under the weight of international sanctions over its nuclear program.
“I am very grateful to my Lord, who opened the door of His mercy on us, allowing us to witness this blessed and abundant rain,” said Brian Shad Doust, a resident of Tehran. “Last year, we really suffered from a severe lack of water – it was extremely dry, we practically had no water at all. Seeing rain for the first time this season, we thank God a thousand times.”
Drying tanks, light layer of snow causes Iran
The drought has long been a topic of conversation in Tehran and across Iran, from government officials openly discussing it with visiting journalists to people buying water tanks for their homes. In the capital, government-sponsored billboards are urging the public not to use garden hoses outside to avoid waste. Water service is shut off for hours in some neighborhoods of Tehran, home to 10 million people.
Snowpack in the surrounding Alborz Mountains also remains low, particularly after a summer that saw temperatures rise to near 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas of the country, forcing government buildings to close.
Ahad Vazifeh, an official at the government office of the Iran Meteorological Organization, called the drought “unprecedented” in an interview with the Fararu news publication last week. Rainfall now stands at about 5 percent of what is considered a normal fall, he added.
“Even if the rain is normal in winter and spring, we will have a deficit of 20%,” warned Vazifeh.
Videos on social media show people standing in some tanks, water lines clearly visible. Satellite images reviewed by the Associated Press also show visibly depleted reservoirs. This includes the Latyan Dam – one of five key reservoirs – which is now less than 10% full as Tehran entered its sixth straight year of drought.
The state-run Tehran Times, often toeing the theocracy’s line, was clear about the scale of the challenge.
“Iran is facing an unprecedented water crisis that threatens not only its agricultural sector but also regional stability and global food markets,” the newspaper said in an article last weekend. The faithful also prayed for rain at the country’s mosques.
Long arid Iran faces the challenge of climate change
Iran, which lies at the crossroads between the Middle East and Asia, has long been arid due to its geography. The Alborz and Zagros mountain ranges cause a so-called “rain shadow” across much of the nation, blocking moisture from the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf.
But the draining of the water sources happened by itself. Agriculture uses about 90% of the country’s water resources. This has not been stopped even in recent years of drought. This is partly due to policies stemming from Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and then-supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who promised that water would be free for all. The years following the Iran-Iraq war saw the country push for self-sufficiency above all else, irrigating arid lands to grow water-intensive crops such as wheat and rice and over-drilling wells.
Experts have described Iran as facing “water bankruptcy” because of its decisions. In the past, Iranian officials have blamed their neighbors in part for their water shortages, with former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at one point falsely suggesting that “the enemy is destroying the clouds that are moving towards our country, and this is a war that Iran will win.”
But that changed with the severity of the crisis leading to current president Masoud Pezeshkian warning that the capital might have to be moved. However, such a decision would cost billions of dollars that the country probably does not have while it faces a major economic crisis.
Meanwhile, climate change likely has accelerated droughts affecting Iraq, which experienced its driest year on record since 1933, as well as Syria and Iran, said World Weather Attribution, a group of international scientists that studies the role of global warming in extreme weather.
With the climate warming by 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) from burning fossil fuels, the severity of the drought seen in Iran over the past year can be expected to return every 10 years, the group said. If the temperature had not risen so much, it could be expected every 50 to 100 years, he added.
“The current acute crisis is part of a longer-term water crisis in Iran and the wider region resulting from a range of issues, including frequent droughts with rising evaporation rates, water-intensive agriculture and unsustainable groundwater extraction,” the World Weather Attribution said in a recent report.
“These combined pressures contribute to chronic water stress in major urban centers, including Tehran, which appear to be at risk of severe water shortages and emergency rationing, while curtailing agricultural productivity and increasing competition for scarce resources.”
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.