The issue of water and water resources in Iran has turned into a major crisis. Water management and hydrology experts have reported a “water bankruptcy, and that Iran’s water reserves will be depleted within the next 36 years,” according to a November 8, 2022, report published by the state-run Fararu website.
On January 12, the regime’s Ebtekar newspaper reported that “nearly forty thousand villages have been abandoned due to various reasons, primarily water scarcity.”
In an interview with the state-run Shargh daily on November 3, 2022, Gholam Hossein Shafei, head of the Iranian regime’s Chamber of Commerce said, “Iran only has ten years to deal with the water crisis, and if water resource management continues with the same approach, it will be difficult to imagine the existence of any living creatures in the next 20 years.”
On May 19, 2021, The New York Times wrote: “12 out of 31 provinces in Iran will completely run out of underground water tables within the next 50 years.”
According to the regime’s official data, 97 percent of Iran is grappling with drought to various degrees. The percentage of drought-affected areas is less than 90 percent in only in five provinces: Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, Lorestan, Hamadan, and Kohgiluyeh & Boyer-Ahmad.
Based on a report of the regime’s Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization, published by the state-run Eghtessad 24 website on February 13, “the area of desert provinces in Iran has increased by 66 percent, and in fact, only ten provinces in Iran have not yet turned into deserts. Additionally, approximately one-third of the Zagros forests, which constitute about 40 percent of Iran’s forests, have dried up.”
The water crisis in Tehran is very serious. Regime-linked experts say the country is now reaching a critical point where approximately four million people will face water scarcity. There is no possibility of rationing, and dam reservoirs are also not sufficient, according to a report by the state-run Jahanesanat daily on January 26.
Over the course of a decade, the level of groundwater across Iran has decreased by at least ten meters compared to previous years. This has led to the expansion of deserts.
#WaterCrisis and Environmental Challenges in #Iran
The issue of water and water resources in Iran has turned into a major crisis. pic.twitter.com/41zbTPtFRT— Iran Focus (@Iran_Focus) June 14, 2023
“For example, the ancient Iranian tamarisk trees in the city of Narmashir in Kerman province, central Iran, have almost completely been destroyed within a decade due to their inability to adapt to rapid changes in water resources,” according to a May 28 report of the state-run Jahanesanat daily.
“Approximately 96 billion cubic meters of water are consumed annually in Iran, while the total renewable resources of the country, which is the total precipitation minus evaporation, amount to about 90 billion cubic meters,” according to a 16 May 2021 report published by the official Etemad daily.
Based on the Rio de Janeiro agreement in 1992, countries are entitled to use only 40 percent of renewable water resources. However, the regime in Iran has been using more than 100 percent of its capacity of renewable water for years.
“We had 200 billion cubic meters of fossil freshwater, and we have consumed it all,” said Isa Kalantari, the former head of the regime’s Environment Department.
Ninety percent of water consumption in Iran is for agricultural purposes, seven to eight percent for drinking and domestic use, and the rest goes to the industrial sector.
Iranian farms are still irrigated in traditional methods dating back to ancient times. As a result, over 80 percent of the country’s water resources, equal to at least 70 billion cubic meters of water, is literally wasted in the agricultural sector.
In the domestic and drinking sector, between seven to eight billion cubic meters of water are consumed annually in Iran. In this sector alone, due to the aging water supply network, 15 percent of drinking water, equal to 1.15 billion cubic meters, is wasted and the regime has taken no action in this regard.
Industries with high water consumption include steel mills, other steel factories, petrochemical plants, and refineries. These industries are mainly located in the central regions of Iran, which are dry areas.
Sixty eight percent of the country’s industrial steel production, which consumes a significant amount of water, is located in Isfahan Province and owned by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). More importantly, the required water for factories such as Mobarakeh Steel and steel mills is supplied from freshwater sources. According to statistics published by the Isfahan Water Organization, the Mobarakeh Steel Plant, being Iran’s largest steel mill, is one of the major consumers of the waters of Zayandehrud River.
“Until 1978, Iran had only 30 dams.According to statistics, there are now 1,330 dams across the country in various stages of operation, construction, and planning,” according to a report cited by the Jahanesanat daily on May 19, 2021.
There are currently around 30 to 40 dams under construction in regions such as the Sistan and Baluchistan province of southeast Iran where rivers are scarce. In Iran’s central desert where only 10 to 12 percent of the country’s water flows, over 200 dams have been built or are under construction.
According to regime-linked experts, at least 20 percent of the country’s dams in the design phase are riddled with errors.
In an interview with the state-run Farheekhtegan newspaper on May 31, former Energy Minister Hamid Chitchiansaid, “We have gone to extremes in dam construction; the volume of the constructed dams exceeds 76 billion cubic meters, while we do not have more than 46 billion cubic meters of water for regulation.”
One example is the drying of Lake Urmia in northwest Iran, the second-largest saltwater lake in the world. This waterbed has gone dry and turned into salt-producing springs due to the construction of over 100 dams on its tributaries.
Moreover, dam construction in inappropriate locations has destroyed over 50 percent of the country’s wetland ecosystems, forced 75 percent of the wetlands into critical conditions, and completely wiped out many animal species in these areas.
“If we had spent only ten percent of the dam construction costs on groundwater sustainability, we would have had sustainable water resources now, and the country’s rivers would have been lively,” said Dariush Mokhtari, a government-linked water expert to the semiofficial ILNA news agency on June 1.
Until the summer of 2021, there were 350,000 unauthorized wells and 550,000 authorized wells across Iran. More than ten billion cubic meters of water are extracted annually from these 900,000 wells.
The profits from operating these wells go to large IRGC-owned agricultural companies.
“One of the problems caused by the plundering of groundwater is land subsidence, and Tehran subsides by 13 centimeters every year. In total, 254 regions throughout the country are facing subsidence crises due to uncontrolled water extraction,” according to a 9 April 2022 report published by the state-run Etemaad daily.
“Sixty six percent of the country’s 610 plains have subsided, and now approximately 12 million hectares of these plains are at risk of subsidence, with 24 million people (about the population of Texas) living on subsided lands,” according to the Etemaad report.
“Based on areport of the regime’s Mapping Organization, a subsidence area has been identified in the southwest of Tehran, registering the highest amount of settlement, reaching 171 centimeters over 8 years (between 1995 and 2003), or approximately 21 centimeters per year. Subsidence in Iran is five to seven times the global average, occurring at an annual rate of 25 to 30 centimeters (one meter every five years),” the report continues.
The situation is even worse in Iran’s agriculture sector. The mullahs’ regime is not concerned about suitable cultivation in appropriate locations. For example, watermelon production reached 3.180 million tons in 2022. However, Iran’s lands are not suitable for water-intensive crops like watermelons. According to regime statistics, in 2021, Iran exported over 900,000 thousand tons of watermelons to other countries, generating an income of $208 million.
To produce 900,000 thousand tons of watermelons, however, 450 million cubic meters of water is needed, costing a minimum of $450 million. Regime officials could care less because they need the foreign dollars.
The regime claims that it intends to transfer water from the Persian Gulf to Kerman and Yazd provinces in central Iran). Regime-linked experts, however, say that the same mafia that has been involved in dam construction is now seeking to transfer water from the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.
Iran’s water crisis exacerbates the other crises that this regime has imposed on the population, to the point that even regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is afraid of the explosive social conditions.
“The more important issue is that the poor have no voice. There are plenty of sound waves around us, but our ears are tuned in such a way that we only hear certain wavelengths. In our society, only the voices of a few are heard, and others are not allowed to raise their voices so that their voices do not reach anywhere. Poverty has no voice, and it will suddenly scream,” reads an article published by the state-run Etemad Online website on May 30.
