Panic as 15m citizens could evacuate major city amid water crisis | World | News

The population of Iran’s capital faces evacuation as the threat posed by dwindling water resources continues to grow. The Karaj Dam, which provides a quarter of drinking water to Tehran’s 15 million residents, is currently operating at just 8% capacity, and others are in similarly dire straits, prompting authorities to take drastic measures. The Middle Eastern country has been struggling with severe drought for six years due to low rainfall, with reservoir levels reaching particularly critical levels in recent months.

Water is rationed in some parts of the city, but the worsening trend is also forcing discussion of tougher solutions. Professor Kaveh Madani, Director of the United Nations (UN) University Water Institute, said Tehran has only “a few days or even weeks of water left.”

“Day Zero, as we call it in the water industry, is coming. It’s a day when the taps will run dry,” he told CBC.

Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian warned last month that if the city did not see rain by the end of November, rationing would begin and the next step would be evacuation.

Tehran and the country at large have become increasingly vulnerable to drought in recent years due to factors such as water-intensive irrigation, subsidized water use and mass migration to urban areas, and extreme depletion of resources.

But Iranian Energy Minister Ali Abadi also blamed the crisis on water leaks in Tehran’s 100-year-old water infrastructure and damage from the country’s 12-day conflict with Israel in June.

Tehran is not the only city facing a potential “Day Zero” crisis; Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Cape Town are among those caught in a similar predicament (the latter just last year).

However, the problem is not new for Iran; President Pezeshkian warned in 2011 that water shortages were looming. Professor Madani told Sky News: “These were not created overnight.

“They are the product of decades of mismanagement, lack of foresight, overconfidence and misplaced confidence in how much infrastructure and engineering projects can do in a relatively water-starved country.”