Mashhad Dams Near Empty Amid Iran’s Worsening Water Crisis

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – In the most alarming sign yet of Iran's deepening environmental catastrophe, water levels at the dam reservoirs supplying the nation's second-largest city, Mashhad, have plummeted to a critically low level of less than three percent, a dire situation that prompted a local official to declare that managing water use is no longer a matter of choice but an absolute necessity for survival.

The news, reported by Iranian media on Sunday, provides a stark and localized snapshot of a nationwide crisis, a drought described as the worst in a century that is now threatening to trigger planned water cuts for millions in the capital, cripple the economy, and potentially reshape Iran's geopolitical standing in the Middle East.

According to a report carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the chief executive of the water company in Mashhad delivered a grim assessment of the situation facing the northeastern holy city. "The water storage in Mashhad's dams has now fallen to less than three percent," Hossein Esmaeilian told the ISNA news agency.

His subsequent warning underscored the gravity of the emergency, moving beyond typical conservation appeals to a stark declaration of necessity. "The current situation shows that managing water use is no longer merely a recommendation -- it has become a necessity," Esmaeilian stated, signaling that the city of over three million people is on the brink of a severe water emergency.

This crisis in Mashhad is not an isolated incident but rather a symptom of a much larger, systemic failure that has been building for years and is now reaching a breaking point across the Islamic Republic.

As previously reported by Kurdistan24, Iran is grappling with its most severe drought in decades, a situation so extreme that officials have announced preparations for periodic water cuts in the sprawling capital, Tehran, a metropolis of more than 10 million residents. The crisis has been exacerbated by what officials are calling the lowest level of rainfall in a century, with half of Iran’s thirty-one provinces having endured months without a single drop of rain.

The sense of impending disaster was dramatically amplified by a recent national address from President Masoud Pezeshkian, who issued a shocking warning that Tehran might have to be "evacuated" if the drought persists through the end of the year, though he provided no details on how such a monumental and chaotic operation could possibly be managed.

His statement, however, served to elevate the crisis from an environmental concern to a potential national security emergency.

Energy Minister Abbas Ali Abadi confirmed the immediate response, stating on state television that planned water cuts would be implemented to "help avoid waste even though it may cause inconvenience," acknowledging that some neighborhoods in the capital had already begun experiencing overnight water shortages.

The data from Tehran’s water authority paints a picture just as bleak as that in Mashhad. The capital, which has long depended on the seasonal rainfall and snowmelt from the Alborz Mountains, is watching its primary reservoirs approach depletion.

Behzad Parsa, the director general of the Tehran Water Company, revealed that the Amir Kabir Dam, one of five major reservoirs serving the capital, now holds a mere 14 million cubic meters of water. This is a catastrophic drop from the 86 million cubic meters it held at the same time last year.

With Tehran’s daily consumption rate hovering around three million cubic meters, a simple calculation suggests the city’s reserves could be completely exhausted within weeks unless significant rainfall arrives to replenish the system.

This precarious situation is not unique to Tehran and Mashhad; similar conditions have been reported in other major urban centers, including the historic city of Isfahan and the industrial hub of Tabriz, where authorities are also contemplating nighttime water cuts to conserve what little remains.

The government has already resorted to drastic measures to cope with the crisis, declaring two emergency public holidays in July and August during a brutal summer heatwave in an attempt to reduce water and energy consumption, a period that was also marked by daily power outages.

This environmental catastrophe is unfolding against the backdrop of an economy already severely weakened by years of crushing international sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations. These sanctions, targeting Iran’s nuclear program and its regional activities, have crippled vital sectors of the economy, including energy, manufacturing, and trade.

The drought now threatens to deliver a devastating blow to what remains, choking off the water supply essential for agriculture, industry, and basic urban life, which in turn could ignite further inflation and social unrest.

Iran’s currency has already lost a significant portion of its value, and as the water shortages worsen, key industries such as petrochemicals, mining, and steel production—all of which are heavily reliant on water—face the prospect of major slowdowns or shutdowns.

This will inevitably deepen unemployment and exacerbate social tensions in a nation where periodic protests over high living costs and a lack of opportunities have become common.

Beyond its severe domestic consequences, the crisis threatens to fundamentally undermine Iran's regional influence at a time of significant geopolitical flux.

As Tehran's financial and natural resources become increasingly constrained, its capacity to sustain the funding and logistical support for its network of allied groups and proxies across the region—including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and various militias in Iraq and Gaza—could be significantly weakened.

The environmental collapse now unfolding within its borders may inadvertently accomplish what years of economic pressure and diplomatic isolation from Washington and Tel Aviv have sought to achieve, by forcing Tehran to turn its focus inward on domestic stability and survival.

Environmental analysts have been warning for years that Iran’s predicament is not solely a product of nature. As previously reported by Kurdistan24, a consensus is growing that decades of chronic mismanagement of water resources have transformed a natural drought cycle into a full-blown national emergency.

A relentless policy of dam construction, the promotion of inefficient and water-intensive agricultural practices, and a general failure to implement effective conservation policies have all contributed to the current disaster.

As one Iranian environmental activist poignantly noted in a recent social media post, "The real drought is not only in our rivers and lakes, but in our governance and our priorities."

This crisis, analysts argue, is not just about a lack of water, but about the long-term sustainability of Iran's political and economic model. If the government in Tehran fails to adapt swiftly and fundamentally reform its approach to managing its most precious resource, the nation’s environmental disaster could rapidly metastasize into a geopolitical one, profoundly reshaping its position in a Middle East already teetering on the edge.