As Iran’s energy crisis intensifies alongside soaring temperatures, several provinces have announced closures at the end of the week or instructed employees to work remotely.
According to official statements, banks, government offices, educational centers, schools, and executive institutions in provinces such as Ardabil and Golestan will be closed on Tuesday, August 5, while Isfahan will be closed on Wednesday, August 6.
Closures will also take place in East and West Azerbaijan, Khuzestan, and Yazd provinces on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Rising temperatures and the need to “manage water and electricity consumption” have been cited as reasons for these shutdowns.
Water Reserves in 19 Major Iranian Dams Fall Below 20% https://t.co/vDvmsAL3HX pic.twitter.com/98sB7aRlau
— Iran Focus (@Iran_Focus) August 4, 2025
Analysts believe such decisions reflect deep-rooted and chronic shortcomings in infrastructure management and development—failures that Iran’s regime has not been able to overcome in recent years.
Air Pollution: A Crisis Added to Crises
In addition to extreme heat, data from Iran’s national air quality monitoring system shows that the air in Dezful and Masjed Soleyman, two cities in Khuzestan Province, is at a “hazardous” level.
Twelve other cities in Khuzestan are experiencing “very unhealthy” or “unhealthy for all age groups” air quality conditions.
The intense heat, unprecedented decline in dam inflows—especially in Tehran—and relentless pressure on the power grid have already led to repeated closures of public institutions in various cities across Iran in recent weeks as a crisis management measure.
Amid warnings about dwindling water reservoirs in dams supplying drinking water to several Iranian cities, ongoing multi-hour blackouts and repeated water pressure drops, or outright cuts have occurred in parts of the country.
The crisis reached such severity that the government declared Wednesday, July 23 a public holiday in some cities—and later touted the outcome as a “success.”
Based on proposals from executive bodies and government agencies, Wednesday closures were initially planned to continue as a strategy at least until the end of summer. However, the government later abandoned this plan itself.
Water Crisis in Iran: An Uncertain Future https://t.co/NpMDoT8SuW pic.twitter.com/1qG021enPK
— Iran Focus (@Iran_Focus) July 30, 2025
Despite the official opposition, several provinces, citing delegated authority to provincial governors, took a different approach and repeatedly closed public institutions on various weekdays.
On Monday, August 4, the state-run newspaper Donya-e-Eqtesad referred to this situation as a “gap between national decisions and local actions.”
Donya-e-Eqtesad, highlighting serious concerns over the ongoing energy crisis, wrote that disorganization, contradictory decisions, and unstructured delegation of authority could ultimately lead to consequences beyond just the water and electricity crisis.
The paper added: “If the heat and water shortage persist in the coming weeks, will each province go its own way? Or will a unified and coherent decision finally be made by top-level institutions?”
Coinciding with the announcement of these closures, on August 4, Abdollah Fazeli Farsani, Deputy for Protection of the Central Plateau Watershed, warned that the total water stored in Tehran’s five major dams is at just 20% of their capacity—down by 266 million cubic meters compared to the same period last water year.
Mohsen Ardakani, CEO of Tehran Province’s Water and Wastewater Company, stated that under normal rainfall years, dam reservoirs in Tehran at this time of year typically reached 60% to 70% of capacity.
According to him, storage in the four main dams supplying Tehran’s water has now dropped to 12%.
While Iran has been plagued by energy shortages for years and no serious or structural measures have been taken to address it, Mohammad Mokhber, a senior aide to Ali Khamenei, said that if “everyone works together,” they could present a “practical and indeed successful model” to resolve the water crisis.
