Iranians asked to limit water use as temperatures hit 50C and reservoirs are depleted
Iran is experiencing its hottest week of the year, according to the national meteorological service, with temperatures exceeding 50C in some areas.
On top of the extreme heat, the country is in a serious water crisis. Iran has been in drought for five years, with rainfall even lower this year. The minister of energy, Abbas Aliabadi, announced last week that negotiations to import water were under way with Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The country has hundreds of dams, built from the 1950s onwards but the drought has significantly reduced their output. This, as well as problems with infrastructure and the heatwaves, has led to power cuts across the country.
A spokesperson for the Iranian government, Fatemeh Mohajerani, announced over the weekend that this Wednesday had been made a public holiday in the capital's region due to the enduring heatwaves.
'In light of the continued extreme heat and the necessity of conserving water and electricity, Wednesday … has been declared a holiday in Tehran province,' she wrote on X.
Hussain Hassan*, in his late 50s, said that it is so hot in Tehran and the sun is so fierce he feels unable to walk in direct sunlight. He said: 'I feel the skin is going to burn. [My] shirt gets wet so quickly and I prefer to take shower twice a day at this age amidst severe heat. Thank God, there is no water crisis where I live.'
He added that in some parts of Tehran, authorities had reduced water supplies to manage the crisis. 'I have heard from people that cutting water supply has resulted in water outages lasting at least 12 hours and more,' he said.
According to the climatologist Maximiliano Herrera, the southwestern Iranian city of Shabankareh recorded temperatures of 52.8C over the weekend, potentially the hottest temperature of the year so far (a reading of 53C in Kuwait has not been confirmed). Meteorologists at Metdesk in the UK reported a temperature reading of 51.6C in the southwestern border town of Abadan on 17 July, and 50.3C was recorded in nearby Ahwaz on Monday.
The city of Tehran reported 40C on Sunday rising to 41C on Monday. Hassan said: 'It feels more than 45 degrees Celsius. It is so hot.'
For Hassan, the biggest worry is the brewing water crisis as the reservoirs are depleting and the Karaj dam, which provides water to Tehran province, has hit its lowest level.
Human-caused climate breakdown is making every heatwave in the world more intense and more likely to happen. Some, such as the extreme heatwave in western Canada and the US in 2021, would have been all but impossible without global heating.
The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, issued a stark warning during a cabinet meeting on Sunday. 'The water crisis is more serious than what is being discussed today, and if we do not take urgent action now, we will face a situation in the future for which no remedy can be found,' Pezeshkian said, according to state media. 'In the water sector, beyond management and planning, we also need to address excessive consumption.'
Hassan's words were echoed by others in Iran. Ehsan Ali*, 35, who lives in Mashhad, said people were very worried about power outages and that the hot weather had become unbearable. Ali said the water crisis had been exacerbated in his city by a dam built upstream by Afghanistan in the Herat province. The structure has been criticised by Iranians who believe it is choking off the water flow into Mashhad.
'We have nine-hour load-shedding daily as the temperature has soared across Iran including my home town,' Ali told the Guardian. 'The water crisis is one of the biggest issues. Our dams are becoming dry and water reservoirs are depleting so fast.'
*Names have been changed.
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