Current Events > Tehran has almost completely run out of water.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4p2yzmem0o

The manager of the Latian Dam, one of Tehran's main water sources, says it now holds less than 10% of its capacity. The nearby Karaj Dam which supplies water to both Tehran and Alborz provinces is in a similarly dire condition.

The president has said evacuations are potentially coming too

Supposedly this has been on the cards for decades.

That is pretty bad I'd say

I believe Arizona was in a dire situation concerning water shortages a while back?

A crisis long foreseen

Iran's water crisis has been decades in the making.

Even Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has repeatedly acknowledged the looming threat speaking about water shortages in his Nowruz addresses in 2011 and on other occasions in the following years.
Yet little has changed.

Today, Tehran, Karaj and Mashhad home to more than 16 million people combined are facing the real possibility of their taps running dry.

Makes me wonder. If the country valued better relations with the West and spent more of its money on domestic infrastructure instead of spreading chaos in the Middle East as well as repression of its own citizens, would it have desalination plants that could help alleviate this crisis? They have the oil money to afford them and had decades to do something about it.

President Masoud Pezeshkian has warned that if there is not enough rainfall soon, Tehran's water supply could be rationed. But he said that even rationing might not be enough to prevent a disaster.
"If rationing doesn't work," Pezeshkian said, "we may have to evacuate Tehran."
His comments have prompted criticism in Iranian newspapers and on social media. Former Tehran mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi called the idea "a joke" and said "evacuating Tehran makes no sense at all".

So the situation is dire enough they are considering abandoning the capital? Granted, my takeaway from this is if evacuation may fix this that means that other parts of the country do have water.

Charged151 posted...

They have the oil money to afford them and had decades to do something about it.

I was under the impression the oil money was mostly concentrated in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and Kuwait.

How much oil does Iran have?

Tyranthraxus posted...

I was under the impression the oil money was mostly concentrated in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and Kuwait.

How much oil does Iran have?

Lots

Iran retains position as OPECs third-largest oil producer: report

https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/508721/Iran-retains-position-as-OPEC-s-third-largest-oil-producer-report

Also, 3rd largest proven reserves going by this. Saudi Arabia and Canada have more.
https://web.archive.org/web/20070613005503/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2178rank.html

Charged151 posted...

Lots

Wow. They really are wasting tons of money.

Apparently, the place they're thinking of relocating the capital to is the Makran region in the far southeast of the country. which makes no sense at all to me.

Charged151 posted...

Lots

https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/508721/Iran-retains-position-as-OPEC-s-third-largest-oil-producer-report

Also, 3rd largest proven reserves going by this. Saudi Arabia and Canada have more.
https://web.archive.org/web/20070613005503/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2178rank.html

Threats earlier in the year from a certain unstable orange man starting to make a bit more sense now.

Iran has plenty of oil.

The problem is that US sanctions make it difficult for them to sell it. And the US is far too busy genuflecting in front of Netanyahu for that to change.

ai123 posted...

Iran has plenty of oil.

The problem is that US sanctions make it difficult for them to sell it. And the US is far too busy genuflecting in front of Netanyahu for that to change.

The solution is for Iran to stop spending money exporting terrorism to the Middle East and to stop spending money repressing its people. Also give up any aspirations of getting nukes (get rid of the highly enriched uranium and most of the centrifuges). That would let them have a much better relationship with the West, particularly Europe. Would make the country a lot more prosperous.

Of course, the current regime isn't interested in doing that. The situation is bad enough in Iran itself protests/riots happen, including the most recent wave.

It's going to start happening in other major metro areas. Los Angeles isn't invulnerable, and in fact in different parts of California they will implement some pretty expensive water restrictions if it gets too dry. They've had serious ongoing issues in Johannesburg.

Water is pretty much the most important natural resource of the 21st century.

Charged151 posted...

Makes me wonder. If the country valued better relations with the West and spent more of its money on domestic infrastructure instead of spreading chaos in the Middle East as well as repression of its own citizens, would it have desalination plants that could help alleviate this crisis? They have the oil money to afford them and had decades to do something about it.

So the situation is dire enough they are considering abandoning the capital? Granted, my takeaway from this is if evacuation may fix this that means that other parts of the country do have water.

Dang, I was gonna make the joke of maybe they should have focused less on repressing their citizens and more on stuff like this. Iran isn't even a landlocked country, they have bodies of water to utilize for desalination plants... but I dunno how they'd handle logistics of that

My aunt is in Tehran so I asked for her experience about this. She said it's not exaggerated at all and they had an engineer come by the other day to consult with about installing a water tank. At night, water to the taps is turned off completely.

This has been a forseeable problem for a long time and the authorities have done little to nothing about it.