Water consumption in Tehran exceeded 46,000 liters per second on Thursday, which is equivalent to the consumption level in the hot days of summer.
While water in Tehran dams is at its lowest level, this volume of consumption can pose serious challenges to the sustainability of Tehran's water supply, ILNA reported.
Despite the high snowfall in the past month, Tehran is still facing a fragile condition regarding its water resources.
In such a situation, Tehran’s citizens have been asked by water officials to reduce their consumption so that the provincial water company can avoid restricting Tehran’s water supply.
The Persian New Year (Norouz) is one month away and as per tradition, many families have started spring cleaning to get ready for the new year. The provincial water authority has requested people to avoid washing carpets, blankets, windows and to the best of their ability not use water for nonessential needs.
Under normal conditions, average water consumption in Tehran is more than the global average.
A four-member family's average water use is 15 cubic meters per month in the world, whereas in Tehran it is above this figure for over 60% of households.
A survey of the water consumption trend in the first half of the current Iranian year (March 21-Sept. 22, 2022) in Tehran Province shows that only 37% of households had normal consumption and other consumers were in the "high consumption" and "bad consumption" categories.
Statistics show that 59% of subscribers are heavy consumers who use 14-28 cubic meters per month, that is twice the defined consumption pattern, and 4% of the subscribers are considered bad users as their consumption has exceeded 28 cubic meters per month. According to reports, this category of subscribers alone consumes 10% of the total domestic drinking water in Tehran.
In order to protect water resources, which have been decreasing due to the continued drought in recent years, the water of bad users is cut off during certain hours of the day. This measure will continue until they reduce their consumption and follow the pattern.
Dams in Critical Conditions
According to the director of the Operation and Maintenance Office of Tehran Regional Water Company, the amount of water stored in the five dams of Tehran now is 82 million cubic meters less than last year.
“Tehran’s dams now hold 230 million cubic meters of water while the figure was 312 mcm last year,” Alireza Arastouei was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
“There has been a decline in water level in all the five dams supplying water to Tehran and the volume of water stored in them is below average,” he said.
“In Amir Kabir, Latyan, Lar, Taleqan and Mamlou dams, we are facing a decline of 15, 6, 1, 36 and 25 mcm of water respectively compared to last year.”
The five dams together can hold 2 billion cubic meters of water, but the total water stored in them now show that they are only about 11.5% full.
Almost 30% of potable water demand in the province can be met through dams and the rest must be extracted from underground resources, which are already in a bad state.
Speaking about the precipitation in the capital since the beginning of the current water year (September 2022), Arastouei said, “In the five-month period, about 95.7 mm of rainfall have been registered in the province, which shows a reduction of 29.9% compared to the long term [50-year] average”.
