Tehran on the Brink of Water Disaster as Converging Crises Threaten Iran

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – In a dire and unprecedented warning that has laid bare the catastrophic scale of Iran's deepening environmental crisis, the country's official news agency, IRNA, has declared that the capital, Tehran, is facing the imminent danger of running out of drinking water in less than two weeks.

This alarming revelation, the result of a historic and prolonged drought that has decimated the region's water reserves, is just one symptom of a cascade of converging crises—from skyrocketing food prices that have crippled household budgets to the slow, silent, and irreversible sinking of the earth itself—that are now threatening the stability of the Islamic Republic and the well-being of its millions of citizens.

The immediate and most acute threat is centered on the sprawling metropolis of Tehran, a city of more than 10 million people now staring into the abyss of a water catastrophe.

Behzad Parsa, the director of Tehran's water company, delivered the stark numbers that have sent shockwaves through the capital. He announced that the Amir Kabir dam, one of the five primary sources of water for the city, currently holds "only 14 million cubic meters of water," a figure that represents a mere 8 percent of its total storage capacity.

The implication of this number is terrifyingly clear. Parsa pointed out that this meager amount of water will only be sufficient to meet Tehran's needs "for less than two weeks."

To put this precipitous decline into perspective, Parsa noted that just last year, the same dam held approximately 86 million cubic meters of water. This staggering decrease, he explained, is the direct result of "a hundred percent drop in the rate of rainfall," a statistic that underscores the severity of what is being described as the worst drought in decades.

This is not a sudden crisis, but the culmination of a slow-moving disaster that officials have been warning about for months.

Earlier in July, Tehran's governor, Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian, had already announced that the water level of the city's four main dams had plummeted by a staggering 87 percent. The province's water company has stated that the cumulative effect of a five-year drought and the persistent lack of rain has pushed the water reserves of Tehran's dams to their lowest level in the past 100 years.

The reality of this crisis is now being felt in the daily lives of Tehran's residents. The city, which is nestled at the southern foot of the Alborz mountains, consumes approximately three million cubic meters of water every day. In response to the dwindling supply, authorities have been forced to implement drastic and disruptive measures.

In recent days, water has been cut off entirely in several neighborhoods of the city as a desperate measure to reduce consumption, a practice that was also employed during the scorching summer season. In an even more extreme move, local authorities in August took the decision to close some 20,000 public toilets across the city simply to cope with the water shortage.

The crisis reached such a peak during the heatwave of July and August that the Iranian government declared two official holidays in the capital, a move aimed at managing the simultaneous and crippling shortages of both water and energy, which had led to continuous power outages.

The gravity of the situation has been acknowledged at the highest levels of government. Masoud Pezeshkian, the President of Iran, had previously issued a warning, announcing that "the water crisis is more serious than what is being discussed today."

As the taps in the capital threaten to run dry, another, equally punishing crisis is unfolding in the nation's markets. A relentless wave of high prices has swept across Iran and Eastern Kurdistan, hitting the fruit and vegetable market with particular ferocity.

According to the latest report from the Statistical Center of Iran, the price of fruits and vegetables in the first month of autumn this year has skyrocketed by an astonishing 77.7% compared to the same period last year. This has made fruit the most inflated category of goods after flour, bread, and grains. In just the past few weeks alone, the price of fruit has surged by more than 10 percent.

The on-the-ground reality for consumers and vendors is stark. Qader Bakhshi, a fruit seller, described the rapid and punishing price hikes to Kurdistan24.

"The price of fruit has increased a lot in one week," he said. "The price of one kilogram of pomegranates has gone from 110,000 tomans to 120,000 tomans. The price of one kilogram of oranges has gone from 120,000 tomans to 130,000 tomans. The prices of other fruits and vegetables have also increased in the same way."

The 'Tasnim' news agency, in a special report, stated that "the price of fruit in Kurdistan has become 100% more expensive compared to last year," a shocking figure given that Eastern Kurdistan is one of the main fruit-producing centers in all of Iran.

The inevitable consequence of these prohibitive prices is that a large and growing number of citizens can no longer afford to buy fruit, leading to a market that has become "completely stagnant."

Matin Karimi, another fruit seller, explained the multiple factors driving the price surge. "This year, the price of fruit has become excessively expensive. The wages of workers and transportation have also increased," he said.

Despite his own efforts to mitigate the cost for consumers—"Even though we sell the fruits cheaper than the normal price"—the reality is that "people still cannot afford to buy fruit and our market has become completely weak."

The high price of fruit has a direct and detrimental impact on the living conditions and, crucially, the health of citizens, as fresh produce becomes an unaffordable luxury for many. In the midst of this crisis, a familiar cycle of blame is playing out, with official authorities pointing the finger at brokers and sellers, while the sellers insist that they themselves are buying the fruit at inflated prices.

Trapped in the middle, as always, is the ordinary citizen who suffers the main damage.

Beneath the surface of these immediate crises of water and food, a more insidious and long-term environmental catastrophe is literally taking shape: the ground itself is sinking.

For years, the phenomenon of land subsidence has been appearing across numerous Iranian provinces, and it has now emerged as one of the most serious environmental crises facing the city of Sine (Sanandaj) in Eastern Kurdistan.

The 'ILNA' news agency, in a recent report, published that "the appearance of thin cracks on the agricultural lands of Dehgolan and Qorveh have now become signs of the emergence of a major crisis. A crisis that, slowly and quietly, threatens the future of Sine and the livelihood of thousands of farmers."

The cause of this alarming phenomenon is directly linked to the water crisis. A large portion of the fertile agricultural lands in the east of Sine are irrigated with groundwater.

According to scientific studies, the land subsidence in these areas is a direct result of the excessive and unsustainable depletion of these underground aquifers. Satellite images and radar data have provided a stark and measurable picture of the problem, showing that the Dehgolan plain has subsided by an alarming 12 to 32 centimeters over the last 10 years, an average of six centimeters per year.

While this slow sinking has not been immediately perceptible to ordinary people, its effects are now becoming dangerously clear, with cracks appearing in the walls of buildings and roads beginning to collapse.

Behzad Sharifi Pour, the director of natural resources and irrigation for Sine, issued a grave warning.

"The phenomenon of land subsidence in Sine has reached a dangerous level; especially in the eastern plains and those areas that rely on groundwater for irrigation," he told the 'ILNA' news agency. "If this phenomenon is not prevented, it will cause great economic, environmental, and significant infrastructural damage in the future."

He confirmed that in some of the eastern plains, a drop in the groundwater level of up to 36 meters has been recorded, dramatically increasing the "risk of subsidence of buildings, water transmission lines, sewage networks, and roads."

His conclusion was a stark and urgent call for systemic change. "If the management of water resources and the method of irrigation are not reformed," Sharifi Pour warned, "Sine will face a widespread infrastructural and environmental crisis in the near future."

This cascade of crises—a capital on the verge of waterlessness, a population unable to afford basic nutrition, and a land that is physically sinking under the strain of unsustainable practices—paints a picture of a nation facing a profound and multi-faceted environmental and economic reckoning.