Tehran may be evacuated as taps run dry due to water crisis
The capital city home to millions where the taps are about to run dry
- Tehran is facing a severe water crisis, with officials warning of a potential 'Day Zero' where the city's taps could run dry due to six years of drought.
- Rainfall in the Iranian capital has been near zero in the current water year, with the September to November period being the driest in half a century, leading to dangerously low reservoir levels.
- President Masoud Pezeshkian warned of water rationing and potential evacuation if rainfall does not improve, while officials have also suggested moving the capital as a radical solution.
- Dam reservoirs supplying Tehran are at their lowest levels in 60 years, with some, like the Latyan and Karaj dams, holding less than 10 per cent of their capacity.
- Contributing factors to the crisis include a doubling of Tehran's population, a tripling of water consumption, and outdated policies that placed water-intensive industries in arid regions and rely on inefficient agricultural irrigation.