The severe drought Iran experienced last year has continued in the current year (started March 21) and the two consecutive dry years have caused water levels in the dams to fall, said the director of the Research Center for Studies on Water Resources at the Water Research Institute, affiliated to the Energy Ministry.
“While 60% of the country's dam reservoirs were full this time last year, the figure is now only 50%, meaning that the dams are half empty,” Ashkan Farrokhnia was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
“Precipitation in the country since the beginning of the current water year [September 2021] has decreased by about 25% compared to the long-term average, which has intensified the persisting drought,” he said.
“While water supply from surface resources will definitely decrease compared to last year due to less water in dams, there is also a large deficit in the country's groundwater resources, which increases every year, especially in the central arid and semi-arid regions.”
Besides drought, high consumption is also a serious issue in the country. Farrokhnia said water extraction in many areas is more than the potential of groundwater resources in normal conditions, which has caused a decline in groundwater reservoirs.
Tehran Dams
In related news, Mohammad Shahriari, the deputy for water and hydropower affairs at Tehran Regional Water Company, said the amount of water in the five dams supplying water to the capital has reduced by 269 million cubic meters and the rainfall has had a 25% decrease in the six months ending March 20 year-on-year.
“Only 161.2 mm of rain have fallen since the beginning of the water year, which indicate a 25% drop in rainfall compared to 215 mm in the same period of last year,” Shahriari was also quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry’s news portal Paven.
“There is currently 500 million cubic meters of water in the dams while the figure was 770 mcm at the same time of last year,” he added.
Dams supplying water to Tehran include Taleqan, Latyan, Mamlou, Karaj and Lar. Together, they can hold 2 billion cubic meters of water, but now they are only 25% full.
Providing more details on the dams, the official said, “Amirkabir Dam is presently holding 90 mcm of water while the amount was 168 mcm during this period of last year. The volume of water in Taleqan Dam has dropped from 321 mcm last year to 225 mcm now and Lar Dam has also lost half of its water as its reserves have fallen from 96 mcm to 56 mcm.”
Shahriari noted that the volume of water stored in Latyan Dam last year was about 54 mcm that has increased to 58 mcm this year and the water volume of Mamlou Dam has been nearly halved, going down from 132 mcm to 71 mcm.
“About 30% of potable water demand in the province can be met by dams and the rest must be extracted from underground resources, which are already in poor conditions,” he said.
High Consumption
Water consumption in the sprawling capital is also high. Average water consumption in most cities and towns is around 200 liters per day, whereas the figure hovers around 300 liters for at least 40% of households in Tehran.
According to the statistics provided by the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company of Iran (Abfa), water consumption in Tehran last month surpassed 40,000 liters per second or 3 billion liters per day, up 11% compared to the hot summer days when consumption peaks at 2.7 billion liters.
Referring to global standards, Abfa said a four-member family's average water use is 15 cubic meters per month in the world, whereas in Tehran it is 30 cubic meters for almost 40% of households.
Tehran Province accounts for 25% of total water consumption in Iran, which is around 100 billion cubic meters while its population comprises 17.5% of the country’s total population.
