With the intensifying water crisis and the Iranian regime’s failure in resource management, official reports indicate a serious decline in reservoir levels behind the dams. Three dams in the country have completely dried up, while eight other important and large dams are on the brink of drying out.
According to data from Iran’s Water Resources Management Company, since the beginning of the current water year (September 22, 2024, to August 30, 2025), the total inflow into the country’s dams has been recorded at 24.19 billion cubic meters, which represents a 42% decrease compared to 41.56 billion cubic meters during the same period last year.
During this period, Shamil and Niyan Dam in Hormozgan province, Voshmgir Dam in Golestan province, and Rudbal Darab Dam in Fars province were recorded with zero water reserves, thus categorized as completely dried-up dams.
Additionally, eight other major dams across the country are on the verge of drying out.
25% decrease in the volume of water in dams
The state-run IRNA news agency reported that by August 30, the volume of water stored in the country’s major dams had reached about 20 billion cubic meters, showing a 25% decrease compared to 26.53 billion cubic meters during the same time last year.
IRNA noted that this year, water release from dams was limited to manage the summer months and wrote that since the beginning of the water year, only 28.53 billion cubic meters of water has been withdrawn.
According to this report, the figure was 36.97 billion cubic meters last year, meaning water withdrawals from dams have dropped by 23% this year.
The drying of dams has intensified in recent months and years, and with continued decline in rainfall and the regime’s inability to manage resources, the reserves of several dams have reached zero while eight major dams are on the verge of drying out.
Earlier, on September 1, the state-run ISNA news agency reported that the 15 Khordad Dam in Qom province was taken out of the water supply system. The report said this 200-million-cubic-meter dam currently holds only 16 million cubic meters of water, of which 15 million cubic meters is “dead volume” and unusable.
On August 28, Mehdi Daneshgar, deputy head of Iran’s Water Resources Management Company, announced that rainfall in the current water year was 41% lower than last year, and dam inflows had decreased by 42%.
On July 20, Banafshah Zahraei, a professor of water resources management at the University of Tehran, said that four main dams supplying water to Tehran would dry up by late September.
This crisis is worsening because there are no sources available to compensate for the lost water.
