Iran says recent rains improved water levels in reservoirs

Iranian authorities say rainfalls in February helped mark a higher average precipitation for the water year in the country.

Head of Iran’s Water Resources Management Company (WRM) said on Thursday that recent rainfalls beginning Monday and ending Wednesday increased the average peak to 172 millimeters from 165 millimeters recorded over the last water year in Iran.

Mohammad Hajrasouliha said the rainfall affected major provinces in south, center and north of the country, including the province surrounding the capital Tehran.

A local WRM official in Tehran said that the two-day rains increased water levels in reservoirs of the province by two million cubic meters.

Iran’s autumn precipitation rate above 51-year averageIran says this year’s autumn rainfall has been 23 percent higher than the 51-year average.

Seyyed Hossein Razavi said that water levels in main reservoirs in Tehran were currently around 610 million cubic meters, 25 million cubic meters higher compared with the previous year.

He said that average precipitation in February in Tehran was nearly double the yearly figure.  

Iran has seen years of dry spell before embracing waves of heavy rainfall in March.

That comes as the storage in water reservoirs has always been seen as a major factor for the country’s economic growth and agricultural output.