‘Iran could face severe water crisis in 2017’

Historically low rainfalls have raised concerns that Iran will have an arid year in 2017.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency in a report said the average rainfalls in the country dropped this autumn by 74 percent compared to last year.

This was the lowest drop the country had seen for the past 47 years, Tasnim added.

“Overall rainfalls measured from 22 September 2016 to 30 November 2016 stood at 29.6 million cubic meters. This is while the figure for the same period last year stood at 112.6 million cubic meters,” it added.

The report further emphasized that water reservoirs of Iran’s dams during autumn had dropped by above 50 percent compared to last year.

“If the conditions remain like this throughout winter, Iran will face severe problems over its drinking water during the next [Persian calendar] year,” Tasnim warned.

Iran’s calendar year begins on 21 March 2017.

Iran’s Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian had earlier announced that Iran is in a critical situation in terms of its water resources.

To the same effect, Iran’s Energy Ministry – which is in charge of regulating the water sector – had earlier warned that above 500 cities of the country are struggling with the shortage of drinking water.

Officials blame Iran’s water crisis on the changing climate and frequent droughts. However, they have also warned that reckless consumption is already deteriorating the situation.

Last week, Sattar Mahmoudi, Iran’s deputy energy minister, was quoted by media as saying that the country working on a project to look for water from underground resources.

Mahmoudi added that the project envisaged looking for underground water resources as deep as 2,000 meters, stressing that the country will use Russia’s help for this.