The risk of water cuts and shortages is serious; 210 Iranian cities are experiencing water stress
The situation at Iran's major dams has been described as worrying. Water inflows have decreased by 47 percent this year. The situation in 100 Iranian cities has been declared "red." The risk of water cuts and shortages threatens large areas of Iran.
Reports published by Iranian media indicate a sharp decrease in water inflow to major dams, a decrease that could cause numerous problems for residents of about 210 cities in the country.
The Iranian student news agency "ISNA" published a report on the status of Iran's large dams and wrote: "The status of the country's large dams as of Khordad 1, 1400 shows that the water inflow since the beginning of the water year 1399-1400 has been 25 billion and 290 million cubic meters, which indicates a 47 percent decrease in the inflow of the country's dams compared to the previous year."
The entry of this amount of water into the dams has caused widespread concern among residents of these areas. The capacity of dam reservoirs in Iran is more than 50 billion cubic meters. This is despite the fact that the dam reservoirs were only 57 percent full in the water year 1399-1400.
What does it mean to reduce water levels in dams?
Last year, despite the entry of 47 billion cubic meters of water into dams, parts of Iran, especially residents of the southern provinces of Iran from Khuzestan to Sistan and Baluchestan, faced frequent water shortages and outages.
This is despite the fact that, according to statements by official Islamic Republic officials, the amount of water inflow in the water year 1399-1400 decreased by 47% compared to the previous year.
Not only has the water input to the dams decreased, but even the water reserves have decreased by 27 percent. The decrease in water input has led to a decrease in the water output from the dams. In other words, the water that has entered the cycle of supplying the country's needs from the dams has decreased by 35 percent.
Hamidreza Janbaz, CEO of the Iranian Water and Wastewater Company, says the number of Iranian cities experiencing "water stress" due to water shortages this year has increased to 210 cities.
According to the center's statistics, the situation in 100 cities has been declared red, and residents of these cities will face a water shortage of more than 20 percent. "This same issue has also raised the alarm for water supply," Janbaz said.
The CEO of the Iranian Water and Wastewater Company says that water outages are inevitable in the summer, and "given the long length of the network and the large number of facilities, this will definitely happen."
The CEO of the Water and Wastewater Company speaks of the imminent water outage in at least 101 cities in Iran as if he is bringing good news to the residents of these areas.
He adds: "We do not have a priority for water cuts. But we predict that the 101 cities that have been declared red will possibly experience problems and water cuts. But we do not have any plans for this issue right now."
Source: DW
