Annual water consumption in Iran has increased by over 15 billion cubic meters in the past two decades, Deputy Energy Minister Sattar Mahmoudi said.
“The country’s water use has reached 95 billion cubic meters per year from about 80 bcm two decades ago,” Mahmoudi was also quoted as saying by ILNA on Wednesday.
According to data from the Energy Ministry, an Iranian uses an average of 250 liters of water per day, while per capita water consumption in metropolises such as Tehran may exceed 400 liters.
The official said Iran’s renewable water resources have dropped to around 116 billion cubic meters from 135 billion cubic meters half a century ago.
Mahmoudi noted that scientific indicators show that the current water year (Sept. 23, 2017-Sept. 22, 2018) is the worst in terms of precipitation in the last 10 years.
Located in one of the world’s most water-stressed regions, Iran’s average precipitation rate has been lower than the global average for at least 10 years. Some 37 million Iranians are said to be living in water-stressed regions.
Some experts and environmentalists denounce a widely-held notion that chronic water shortages can be alleviated only by higher precipitation.
Desertification, climate change, illegal water wells, wasteful farming practices, water-intensive industries in arid regions and injudicious use of water in households are known to have a far greater impact on the worsening crisis. Reportedly, there are 13,000 legal and 32,000 illegal water wells in Tehran Province alone.
Tehran Water Storage
Water stored in the capital’s five dams is 8 million cubic meters less than that of the corresponding period in the past fiscal that ended in March 2017, a deputy at the Tehran Regional Electricity Company said.
“The volume of stored water in Tehran’s five dams that supply the metropolitan’s potable water demand has reduced to 564 mcm from 572 mcm a year ago,” Mohammad Shahriari also said on Tuesday.
Shahriari underlined that the recent rainfalls have had a positive impact on the levels of dams’ water storage, but the precipitation rate since the beginning of the present water year is at 101.5 millimeters, 43% lower than the rate in the last water year (179.5 mm).
The official added that this year’s rainfalls are 30% lower than the city’s long-term average, standing at 144.4 mm.
Gholamreza Khoshkholq, the head of TREC, told ISNA last month that Tehran may soon face a double whammy of critical water shortages and blackouts, if rainfalls continue to remain scant and scattered in the next few months.
Dwindling showers are now threatening to hamper power production at dams that help meet the electrical demand of over 8 million people in the capital.
Between March and August, dams around Tehran produced 252,000 megawatts/hour of electricity.
Installed power production capacity stands at around 77,000 MW, including 62,000 of thermal capacity, 12,000 MW from hydropower and 1,000 MW from nuclear power while distributed generation stations and renewables make up the rest.
